


Dive

by whatdoidowiththisthingnow



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: F/F, F/M, Gen, Multi, Other
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-08-09
Updated: 2018-06-29
Packaged: 2018-12-13 07:28:51
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 17
Words: 48,815
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11754990
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whatdoidowiththisthingnow/pseuds/whatdoidowiththisthingnow
Summary: A place for Supergirl one shots of all kinds.





	1. Super Bad Day

Kara's Bad Day

_(aka I had a bad day, and so I wrote...)_

* * *

  


It was no one thing, in particular.

It was a slow accumulation of things, over time…until it was too much, and she knew.

She knew she needed to be alone.

It was Alex’s comment about her (lack of) dating life—that wasn’t wrong, or even mean-spirited, but yesterday it rubbed her the wrong way.

It was Maggie teasing her when she’d overcooked dinner—which normally she could easily laugh off, but last night the smile was forced.

It was James’ comment about her article—which had impressed even Snapper—but this morning, he questioned it’s newsworthiness.

It was Lena at lunch, smirking at Kara’s flatbread pepperoni pizza over her kale salad—even if she never said anything about it directly.

It was J’onn asking if she’d been down to train lately, because that alien she’d just fought should’ve gone down a lot easier…if she’d been keeping up with her training.

It was Winn, who was making an upgrade to her suit— _her_ suit—without asking, without consulting her.

She walked in on him in the middle of working on it, and immediately turned on her heel and walked out of the DEO without a word.

She was in a good mood—and downright bubbly—99.9% of the time, without even trying. But there were rare days, maybe a couple times a year, when it was incredibly, painfully difficult.

When the sarcasm that society has grown so comfortable with—that she can usually dish out with the best of them—is just too much. That she wants to scream at everyone, wants them to just say what they mean, and say it _kindly_ , just for once.

She walks home to clear her head.

She walks home with her headphones in her ears, and the volume as loud as she can bear it. She tries to will herself into a good mood with upbeat songs, but finds herself skipping them all until something slower, something sadder, plays.

She knows she needs to be alone, so she almost goes to the Fortress.

But a second later, she realizes that more than anything, she hopes someone will figure it out—someone will understand.

So she goes home.

But she still locks the door and turns off her phone.

She changes into sweats, and makes a cup of coffee, and snuggles under a blanket on the couch, and starts up Father of the Bride—a favorite movie where she might laugh, but not too much, and she might cry, but not too much.

She falls asleep somewhere in the middle of the movie, and blinks awake in darkness. The TV is stuck on the DVD menu screen, and the clock under it says 9:30pm.

She figures she should go to bed. She’s so comfortable here, but she’ll wake up sore and she won’t sleep well.

She drapes the blanket around her shoulders like a cape, and shuffles into her room to lay down on the bed, and she falls asleep almost instantly.

She wakes up already knowing she’s in a slightly better mood.

And she wakes up to the smell of pancakes and bacon and coffee.

And she wakes up to Alex and Maggie in her kitchen, and “We had a date, remember?”

She smiles, and it’s easy, and she’s grateful for that, “Yeah, I remember.”

And their conversation during breakfast that morning feels normal—even if Alex’s kiss on her cheek feels a little like an apology, and Maggie rubs a few circles on her back that feel a little like an apology too.

But they all go back to work, as usual.

And an upbeat song comes on while she’s walking, and she dances a little, as usual.

And the article she wrote is well-written, yes…but today, she sees what James was talking about. It may not be newsworthy after all.

And Lena calls to tell her about a new bakery that just opened up, “Can we go tonight? I am craving a cupcake,” and Kara happily agrees.

And Winn’s upgrades to the suit are amazing. It’s lighter and more flexible and tough as ever.

And J’onn asks if she’ll train with him, because his training has fallen by the wayside lately too, and he should get back to it.

And the mood that tainted all those moments and comments is gone now, and she laughs easier, and she breathes easier, and she feels lighter, and she feels like herself again.

And she knows that another bad day will come, but she knows she is still so loved, so cared for, that she’ll make it through that one too—whenever it comes, and however she has to.


	2. Sanvers Week - Intimacy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Throwing up a couple of my old stories from Sanvers Week on Tumblr. This one was from the Intimacy prompt.

Alex “always hated being intimate.” She’d said it had never felt right. Never felt like what she’d seen in the movies or what she’d seen in other couples. Maggie knew because Alex told her once. But god, it seems like a lifetime ago now. So long ago, in fact, she can hardly believe that was the same Alex.

The same Alex that gently, so gently, brushes Maggie’s hair back before she kisses her.

The same Alex that reaches for Maggie’s hand when they walk down the street.

The same Alex that rubs small circles on Maggie’s back when she’s lying in her lap, watching TV.

The same Alex who slips her arm around Maggie’s shoulders or waist every chance she gets.

The same Alex that leaves trails of kisses up and down Maggie’s neck, her collarbone…her whole body.

They share a level of intimacy that is deeper than anything either of them have felt before.

And some days, like today, it’s a different kind of intimacy altogether.

Today, Maggie is moving in.

With it, Alex’s apartment—their apartment, their home—is changing. Maggie’s stuff needs a place to go, and Alex’s stuff needs to be moved, reorganized, or thrown out all together. Neither of them has much stock in their material possessions, so the extra coffee mugs, plates, lamps, towels, spatulas, even some books, they’re easy to shuffle around or put in the donation boxes by the door. They’ve already filled a few.

Then Alex opens up a box and finds old photo albums and a shoebox inside. She sits on the floor next to it, back against the couch, and picks up the old shoebox. She opens it carefully. Old photos, ticket stubs…memories from Maggie’s past fill it up. She closes the box gently, hoping to ask Maggie to tell her about it all later, but one photo flutters out, and she picks it up for a closer look.

When Maggie returns from emptying a box of clothes into her half of the closet, Alex is sitting on the floor, holding a picture of what is unmistakably Maggie, about eight, grinning with her dimples on full display. She’s got a popsicle in her hand that’s dripping down her chin, her hands, her polka dot swimsuit. She’s sitting on her Dad’s lap. His eyes are on his daughter, his grin and his happiness just as big, just as palpable, as little Maggie’s. Alex now knows where Maggie got those dimples from, she lightly traces little Maggie’s dimples with her finger.

Maggie puts a hand on Alex’s shoulder and Alex covers it with her own, looks up at her fiancée smiling down on her, not unlike the picture in her hand, and returns the look. Maggie sits next to her on the floor and takes the picture to study for herself.

“That was my Dad’s birthday. I was probably…eight, I think? I loved that polka dot swimsuit.”

Maggie’s voice is a mixture of happy and sad. Alex wants her to keep talking, wants to know more. She softly kisses her cheek. Maggie continues.

“I miss him sometimes. This version of him, before…things got complicated.”

Alex puts a hand on her thigh, “I’m sorry.”

Maggie shrugs. She’s long since made peace with the fact that her family will not go back to what it was when she was a kid, but she’d be lying if she said she was content with what they’ve become now. They’re still family. She still misses them. She even still loves them.

Alex opens the lid of the shoebox, just barely, asking, “May I?”

Maggie nods, “Of course.” She kisses Alex, and Alex picks up another picture from the shoebox.

There’s about a dozen kids on a stairwell, all between the ages of about five and twelve. Their faces and skin tanned and maybe slightly burnt from the sun, all in pajamas, none wearing shoes. They’re in a house that looks outdated, but cozy.

She holds it out in front of Maggie. “Tell me about them—” she gestures to the whole shoebox, “all of them. Please?”

Maggie looks at Alex, her face full of love, full of kindness, heart wide open in this moment—just for Maggie—for her stories, for her childhood…her memories, her family.

“I want to know all of it, if you’ll let me. Will you tell me?”

Maggie kisses her soft, slow. Alex puts a hand on Maggie’s face, and Maggie lets the picture fall, slips a hand around her ribs, pulls her closer, kisses deeper.

They stop to catch their breath a few moments later, still so close, and Maggie looks into Alex eyes. She puts her hand on Alex’s cheek, “I’d love to.”

Alex kisses her again, “I love you.”

“I love you too.”

Maggie looks again at this woman who loves her so fully, so patiently, so wholly…she snuggles up to Alex’s side and plucks the box off of her lap. She takes the next picture out of the box and holds it up…and they both immediately burst out laughing. 

The little Maggie looking back at them is about three, totally naked, standing in an empty bathtub, with red lipstick smeared across her face and scribbled across the entire wall of the shower behind her. Her hair is wild, eyes wilder, but she looks so proud of herself, dimples on full display.

They’re both wiping tears out of their eyes, barely able to breathe from laughing so hard. Alex kisses her forehead, and Maggie takes a deep breath, tries to speak through her laughter.

“I can’t even explain that.”

Alex is still laughing, “I love it.”


	3. Maggie's Phone

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A mini story. :)
> 
> This got out of hand for the start of my Danvers Sisters Week fic, so I’m just gonna make it it’s own little thing.

 

Her phone seems like it’s buzzing endlessly nowadays. And because of her job, and her fiancée’s job, and her kid sister’s…well, existence…it’s not like she can leave it on silent. 

So it vibrates and rings day and night, a symphony of chirps and trills and songs that are a language of their own—all meaning something different. Because after only one short year in the Super Fam’s midst, it doesn’t take long before everyone has their own ringtone…

After one late night impromptu slow dance in the kitchen, Alex is “Won’t Cost A Thing,” by Waz. After more dances and dinners and date nights, sometimes she thinks about changing it, but hearing those opening guitar chords still gives her butterflies, so it stays.

After her first Christmas baking and movie session with the Danvers sisters, the chorus to “Everybody Loves Christmas” is Kara. It stays all year round, which about nine months of the year earns her more than a few raised eyebrows, but always makes her laugh.

After learning how many times he watched it as a kid (every day, before and after school, for over a year, it turns out), James is “Space Jam,” which she is proud to say embarrasses him every single time he is reminded of it.

After a particularly show-stopping karaoke performance, Winn is Billy Joel’s “Movin’ Out.”

M’gann has been Joan Jett’s “I Love Rock and Roll” since before Maggie even met Alex.

J’onn is “Takin’ Care of Business.” Naturally.

It took a while to find Lena’s, but after catching her singing along once, it’s now Van Morrison’s “Brown Eyed Girl,” which Lena hates, which is exactly what Maggie loves about it.

> Lena rubs her forehead, “I have _green_ eyes.”
> 
> Maggie mimics her exasperated tone, “I _know that._ ”
> 
> The staring contest that ensues lasts an uncomfortable, excruciating, three minutes.

It’s a little soundtrack to her life, and those songs that were just words to a melody before, suddenly have faces and memories and feelings attached to them. 

And she couldn’t be happier about it.

That is…until she eventually realizes what songs play on everyone else’s phones when she calls…


	4. Danvers Sisters Night

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> (Danvers Sisters Week on Tumblr, Day 1)

_Fun fact: The original version of this was super sad and so I scrapped like 90% of it and well…sister fluffs it is. Also, Maggie. Because I’m finding it very hard to not have her around. They’re all sisters now. ;)_

* * *

It starts as it usually does, with a flurry of texts…

> _KARA: WORST._  
>  KARA: DAY.   
> KARA: EVERRRR.  
> ALEX: You said that last week.  
> KARA: This one is worse.  
> ALEX: Are you ok?  
> KARA: Physically, yes.  
> MAGGIE: Movie night?  
> ALEX: You beat me to it!  
> MAGGIE: I’m a quick study. ;)  
> KARA: Yes please.  
> MAGGIE: Ice cream or potstickers?  
> ALEX: Not so quick, apparently.  
> KARA: Yo.  
> ALEX: Rookie.  
> MAGGIE: Right.   
> MAGGIE: Both it is.  
> ALEX: Our place or yours?  
> KARA: Yours?  
> MAGGIE: See you at 7?  
> ALEX: I have a meeting.   
> ALEX: Won’t be home til 8.  
> MAGGIE: See you at 7?  
> ALEX: Rude!  
> KARA: See you at 7. :)  
> ALEX: RUDE.  
> KARA: I LOOOOOOVVVVEE YOUUUUUU.  
> KARA: Both of you.   
> MAGGIE: Love you too, kid.  
> …  
> …  
> KARA: Alexxxx…  
> …  
> MAGGIE: Babe.  
> …  
> ALEX: …I’m thinking about it.  
> MAGGIE: DANVERS!  
> KARA: ALEX.  
> ALEX: I love you too.  
> ALEX: Whatever.  
> KARA: Thanks seester. <3  
> ALEX: <3  
> MAGGIE: Nerds.  
> KARA: You love it.  
> MAGGIE: Get outta here.   
> MAGGIE: Some of us have actual work to do.  
> MAGGIE: …but I’ll see you at 7. :)  
> KARA: <3 <3

When the door swings open, Maggie doesn’t even flinch. She was running late after work, and had to stop and get ice cream and potstickers—because Kara offered, but Maggie insisted. She’s standing in the middle of the bedroom, pulling her sweatshirt over her head, when she hears Kara come in, close the door, and flop down on the couch with a grumble.

She walks up behind the couch where Kara is face-first in the cushions and splayed out across the whole thing, “Is this a Kara problem or a Supergirl problem? …or maybe a DEO or CatCo problem?”

Kara mumbles something she can’t quite understand.

“One more time?”

She lifts her head, just barely, holding up a single finger, “Door number one.”

A Kara problem. Which means they most likely need Alex…who probably won’t be here for another hour. Maggie pads over to the kitchen, pulls the ice cream out of the freezer and grabs a couple spoons. As she walks back to the couch, Kara bends her knees to give Maggie space to sit before dropping her legs back onto Maggie’s lap and rolling over to lay on her back.

The worry etched on her face breaks Maggie’s heart—but she’s new to sister nights, and little sisters, and she doesn’t want to overstep, and she doesn’t know if she cares too much, too soon, or if it’s prying, or if it’s just plain weird.

So she silently hands over a pint and a spoon, and leans back, popping the lid off of her own. They eat their ice cream in silence for a few minutes.

Eventually she feels Kara’s eyes on her, and she glances over. Kara is staring, studying almost, her mind clearly working on something else.

“You know how when you’re little, you have all these grand ideas about what life as an adult is like?”

She raises an eyebrow, _where is this going?_ But she’ll bite, “Sure.”

Kara sighs, “It’s nothing like what you think it’ll be.”

_Ain’t that the truth._ Maggie gives her a sad smile, “No, it’s not.”

Kara sits up suddenly, swinging her legs off Maggie’s lap and tucking her feet underneath herself, “How come nobody told me to prepare for being mostly unsure of literally everything in my life?”

Maggie considers the question, and props her elbow up on the back of the couch, “Probably because most adults aren’t brave enough or smart enough to admit how unsure they are of anything in life. Let alone everything.”

Kara’s shoulders slump, “Maybe they’re just better at it than I am.”

“Better at what?”

She sighs, “Life?”

Two big, blue, bottomless and watery eyes look up at her….and Maggie is again reminded of a puppy. They use “puppy” to describe Kara often, and on many occasions, but this is another level.

This is abandoned in a cardboard box, in a dark alley, in the middle of a thundestorm, kind of puppy.

She wonders if this is how Kara got away with everything as a kid, because damn—it would’ve worked on her. She pulls Kara into a hug and Kara’s arms squeeze tightly around her waist, “They’re not. I promise. We’re all fumbling through life together.”

“Alex isn’t.”

“She is.”

“You’re not.”

Maggie laughs, “I definitely am.”

Kara pulls away, and manages a small smile before wiping at her eyes with the palm of her hand, “You know, you’re a good detective, Maggie…but you’re not a very good liar.”

“No, she’s not.”

Both of their heads whip around, and Alex is in the doorway kicking off her boots and hanging up her leather jacket—all while balancing a pizza in one hand.

“Potstickers didn’t seem like enough,” she shrugs.

Kara beams.

And Maggie sighs, “One day, were gonna order salads.”

Alex slides the pizza onto the coffee table and answers Maggie with a slow, sweet kiss, and a smirk, “That’s no fun.”

“You need vegetables, Al,” her eyes follow Alex as she nudges Kara over and sits on her other side, “Both of you need vegetables.”

Kara melts into a hug from Alex before flipping open the pizza box, “Look! There’s peppers on the pizza!”

Maggie rubs her forehead, “That _so_ does not count.”

Alex gives her a wink, “Does too.”

Kara hands them each a slice of pizza before taking one for herself. Alex throws her free hand around her shoulders and tucks her little sister into her side, “What’s wrong, Kar?”

“Life,” she takes a big bite of her pizza.

“Ahh… Yeah, that’ll do it.”

“Can I just go back to being a kid?”

Alex laughs, “You really want that?”

“ _Nooo_ ,” she groans, “Things just…suck lately. In general. Does it get better?”

“Of course.”

“When?”

Alex hesitates, frowns, “…I don’t know.”

Kara heaves a dramatic sigh, pops the last bite of pizza crust in her mouth, and lays out across the whole couch again—her head in Alex’s lap and her legs draped across Maggie’s thighs. “That’s the least helpful answer ever.”

Maggie and Alex laugh, and Alex toys with a piece of Kara’s hair, “Can you give us a more specific problem to diagnose? We’re only mere mortals here—not superheroes.”

“Ha. Ha.” Kara deadpans.

Maggie rests a hand on Kara’s shins, “Look…it’s a pretty tall order to fix your whole life in one night with one pizza. But if we can fix one thing tonight, then maybe tomorrow we can tackle something else.”

“Baby steps, Kara.”

Kara eyes go wide as she looks at Alex upside down, “So we get more pizza tomorrow?”

“That’s not—”

Alex smiles, “Sure. If that’ll help.”

_“Al!”_

She plays innocent, “What?”

“I fear for Gertrude.”

Alex scoffs, “It was your idea!”

“That’s not what I meant, and you know it!”

Kara pops her head up, looking between the two of them, confused, “Wait—who’s Gertrude?”

But Alex puts a hand on her forehead, and makes her lay back down, “Don’t worry about it.”

Maggie grins and winks at Alex, and Alex blushes.

Kara rolls her eyes, “Your cuteness is adorable, but not helpful.”

Alex turns her attention back to her sister, “I’m sorry, Kara. Where were we?”

She sits up with a grin, “More pizza!”

“You haven’t even touched the potstickers.”

“How did I forget?!”

_“Danvers!”_


	5. Nerdiest Nerds in the Multiverse

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 3 of Sisters Week on Tumblr. "Nerd sisters" prompt. 
> 
> Apologies in advance because this got long and it’s not that great but I kinda had fun writing it... :)

“No, Alex.”

Alex gives her the puppy dog eyes, the Danvers Sisters Pout.

Kara doesn’t flinch, “You taught me that pout, and I’m better at it than you.”

Alex crosses her arms, “Come _on_ , Kara.”

“No!”

“Kara, I need answers.”

“Have you heard of the internet?”

She rolls her eyes, “It’s not the same and you know it.”

“I’m not doing this, Alex.”

“You asked me what I wanted for my birthday, and this is it. This is the only thing.”

Kara rolls her eyes, “Alexxxx… There’s no reason for this.”

“For science,” she does not say _duh_ , but it’s implied in her tone.

“That excuse is not all-encompassing, you know?”

“ _Pleeeeeease_ Kara?” she begs.

“These are my friends, not science experiments.”

“You owe me.”

“How in the world do I owe you?”

Wrong question. Alex narrows her eyes, and the grin on her face is not because of what says, but because she now knows she’s won, “You left me here twice. And both times you could’ve died!”

Kara scrambles, “I was not—I was never going to die. That’s…that’s a little dramatic, Alex.”

Alex raises her eyebrows, “J’onn told me all about the Music Meister.”

_Dang it_. Even she has to admit that that time she felt pretty close to dying. And if she had…No, no. She can’t even think about it. She pushes the thought from her mind and refocuses, but Alex is looking way too smug.

She sighs, “When does Maggie get home?”

Alex beams.

…

They wait for Maggie before they leave, and Kara keeps her arms tight around her sisters, just like she would if they were flying—because this is pretty darn close. Alex’s stomach drops and she’s holding Maggie’s hand in a vice-like grip. Maggie’s eyes are shut tight and she looks a little pale and she doesn’t move.

It’s only a few seconds, and there’s a whoosh and a bright light, and suddenly they’re standing in the middle of S.T.A.R. Labs.

Maggie centers herself with a tight grip on both Kara and Alex, and Alex’s eyes are wider than Kara’s ever seen, _“Oh… My…”_

“Kara!”

And she’s spinning around and wrapped up in a hug faster than the speed of light.

“Barry!”

Alex’s face changes instantly, “Barry…” she sizes him up, pointing a threatening finger his way, “ _You’re_ Barry Allen?”

Her face is both unfamiliar and familiar to him, but her tone is threatening, so he ducks behind Kara. His answer is almost a squeak, “Yes?”

She takes two steps toward him and both Kara and Barry brace themselves—but they’re interrupted.

“Kara!”

Kara turns around and runs up the stairs without a second thought, “Caitlin!”

Alex’s jaw drops, “Oh…you’re Caitlin?”

She gives a small wave, “You must be Alex.”

Alex blushes, “I…I am.”

“Wow. I’m standing right here, babe.”

Alex blushes harder and buries her forehead in Maggie’s shoulder, but Maggie only laughs and kisses her cheek.

“Caitlin, Barry, this intimidating, adorable, and blushing mess is my big sister, Alex Danvers.”

Alex glares at Kara for that description, but Kara grins back and sticks out her tongue.

Caitlin corrects her, “ _Doctor_ Alex Danvers, right?”

“Well technically…” Maggie beams, “She has two doctorates.”

Barry’s impressed, “ _Doctor_ Doctor Alex Danvers, then.”

Alex shrugs and Kara sighs, “Oh, brother,” but Alex looks so proud, and Kara is pretty damn proud of her too.

“Sure. Doctor Doctor Alex Danvers. And this is Detective Maggie Sawyer, NCPD Science Division. Also Alex’s fiancée. And…” she bounces a little, “my almost-sister-in-law,” she grins, “Did I miss anything there, Maggie?”

“No—”

“Well, Mazel tov!” Cisco rounds the corner and Kara wraps him up in a hug too.

“Cisco!”

“Sup, alien? And sisters of the alien. Are you—are you also aliens?”

Alex shakes her head, “Human.”

“Bummer. No offense.”

“Cisco Ramon, my sister, Doctor Alex Danvers and her fiancée, Detective Maggie Sawyer.”

Maggie waves her off, “Really, just Maggie and Alex is fine.”

“A doctor and a detective? Cool. You’ll fit right in.”

Kara looks to Barry, “Where’s Iris?”

And Barry suddenly looks so damn proud too, “She’s off on a big news story right now.” He blushes, “She’s amazing.”

“Your fiancée?” Alex asks.

“Yeah.”

And to his surprise, Alex genuinely smiles, “Congratulations.”

He’s stunned, “Oh…thanks.”

An alarm goes off down the hall and there’s a flash of light in the doorway and Wally suddenly appears beside Kara, “Barry!” he quickly realizes there’s a lot more people in this room than usual, he stutters, “Uh…what…?”

Barry ignores his confusion, “What happened Wally?”

“Meta on the loose downtown. Laser eyes. Blowing up cars. No buildings yet, but it’s headed toward the financial district.”

Kara’s interest is piqued, “Laser eyes…?”

“Kara, _no_ ,” Alex warns.

Barry looks between Kara and Alex before making up his mind, “We got it, Kara,” he is not about to make Alex mad, and this meta doesn’t seem too threatening…yet, “I’ll call you if we need back-up.”

In an instant, Barry and Wally are gone and Cisco is running back towards the lab. 

Caitlin shoots a panicked look between the three of them, “Um…I should—” she gestures down the hall.

Kara nods, “Right behind you. However we can help.”

…

Less than twenty minutes later, Barry and Wally have the situation handled, the meta is in the hands of CCPD—and Alex is practically vibrating from her place in the back of the lab.

Kara tries not to grin at her excitement and the quickness of her heartbeat. Maggie is holding her hand, rubbing her thumb in slow circles on Alex’s palm, trying to calm her down.

Cisco and Caitlin turn their attention back toward Kara, Alex and Maggie.

“So…” Cisco claps his hands together, “what brings our favorite alien back to Central City?”

Kara hesitates, “Well…”

He panics for a second, “There’s not another invasion is there? I mean, time travel was _awesome_ , but—”

Kara stops him, “No, no. Nothing like that.”

Alex is not-so-subtly staring at Kara.

She looks a little embarrassed, “Uh…so my sister’s birthday is this week, and the only thing she wanted was…well…she wanted a tour of S.T.A.R. Labs. And she wanted to meet all of you.”

Cisco looks confused, “Why…?”

But Caitlin beams, “ _You_ wanted to come _here_? I mean…from everything I’ve heard and…well…I researched a little bit…but I—I can’t imagine we have much to show you that you haven’t seen.”

Alex can no longer contain herself, “But you can! First of all, the metahumans. How did they get their powers? I mean, I know the particle accelerator exploded, and so that’s how a lot of it happened, but do they all stem from that? Or have there been other incidents that caused more metas to get powers—that’s what you call, them, right—metas?”

“Yes, well…”

“Oh, and Kara! With the Music Meister, how did you save her? _And_ you figured out how to take care of her! It took years of experiments for me to get a handle on—”

“Okay! No, no. They don’t need to know about that, Alex.” Kara panics.

Maggie laughs, “Oh, I _definitely_ need to know about that…”

Kara glares, “You. Do. Not.”

Alex barely notices, barely breathes, “And Grodd?! How did that happen?”

Cisco winces, “Long story…”

“And you have powers…right? Can you control them? What all can you do? You both have them? But different powers. And neither of you are aliens, which just leaves me with so many more questions. And Barry! I need to ask him about time travel. And time remnants. And then the multiverse! How many Earths do you guys know of? Oh! And what about the Waverider? Is their time travel different? And—”

And thankfully Caitlin cuts her off. She grins and grabs her arm and tugs her toward her lab. Cisco is slack-jawed, stunned into silence.

The sliding glass doors close behind them and Maggie stands next to Kara, “We’ve lost her entirely, you know that.”

Kara smiles, “Yes we have.”

“The biggest nerd.”

“Always has been.”

Maggie wraps an arm around her waist, “I’m only a little mad that this is going to totally overshadow my gift to her.”

“Not sorry.” Kara grins. “Oh! You should meet Joe! He’s Iris and Barry’s dad, and he’s a detective for—”

“Wait—aren’t Iris and Barry engaged?”

“Yes.”

“And he’s both of their dads?”

Cisco puts a hand on her shoulder, “Try not to think about it too much.”

Maggie raises her eyebrows.

Kara tells it as best as she can quickly, “Barry’s mother was murdered when he was a kid, his dad was arrested and charged with the crime—but he didn’t do it—but Barry went to live with Iris and Joe. So Joe is his dad, but they’re not siblings.”

Maggie takes that information in, “…ok.”

Barry and Wally appear in an instant, and Cisco high fives them. “Great work, Team Flash.”

“Thanks, Cisco.”

Barry looks toward the lab and back to Kara, “What are they doing?”

She rolls her eyes, “Being nerds.”

Barry’s confused. Kara explains again, “Alex’s birthday is this week and she really wanted to come here and see S.T.A.R. Labs and play with all your toys and ask you five thousand questions. Apologies in advance.”

Wally laughs, “So this is gonna take a while?”

Maggie nods, “Oh yeah.”

Kara looks at Wally, “You guys got any good food on this Earth?”

“Big Belly Burger,” all three boys say in unison.

Barry is about ready to speed off but Kara stops him, “And ice cream!”

Iris walks in just then, “Barry Allen, next time you better call me and tell me you survived the laser-shooting metahuman before I have to watch it on the news.”

He blushes, “I—I was going to…”

“Uh-huh.” She eyes him up and down, and kisses him on the cheek. She looks at her brother and punches him in the arm, “You too, Wally.”

He rolls his eyes, “I’m fiiine. C’mon Barry. Let’s go.”

They take off at lightning speed, Iris smacks Cisco lightly, “You could’ve called me too.”

Maggie looks to Kara, “I like her already.”

Kara sighs, smirks, “Of course you do.”


	6. "Alex, no!" "Alex, yes!"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Danvers Sisters Week Day 4 stuff. This kinda goes with this [(https://archiveofourown.org/works/11288784/chapters/25752831)](https://archiveofourown.org/works/11288784/chapters/25752831) but you don't have to read it in order (or at all) for it to make sense.

 

The first time, Alex did it on accident.

Kara hadn’t been with the Danvers’ long, and she rarely said anything—although Alex was pretty sure she knew English better than she was letting on.

She was polite, but she kept to herself. She respected Eliza and Jeremiah, but she adored Alex.

And Alex hated it.

She never asked for a sister—well, ok, she had asked a long time ago, but now that she was here? No. She didn’t want this. She wanted to be the only child again.

And Kara was…different. Always different. And it was exhausting.

And now, she had refused to eat anything for a week. Eliza and Jeremiah were worried, and Alex? Alex could not care less.

Until one afternoon, when she walked by Kara’s room and saw her laying on her bed, staring at the ceiling fan going around in circles. It only took a second of hesitation for her to realize Kara was crying.

And, _dammit_ …even Alex couldn’t ignore that.

“Kara!” it came out a little harsher than she meant it to.

No answer.

She carefully stepped over the threshold. She would yell at Kara for invading her space like this, but somehow she thought Kara probably wouldn’t mind.

Her voice softened, “Kara?”

Nothing.

Alex huffed. “I’m trying here, Kara. I know we don’t get along, but…” her voiced dropped to a mumbled whisper, “I—I don’t want you to be upset.”

And Alex knew Kara heard her—she knew by now that she could hear just about everything in a ten mile radius, if she tried—but Kara didn’t flinch. Didn’t respond at all.

So now Alex was mad.

She climbed up on the foot of the bed, standing on the edge and towering over Kara. She reached for the chain on the fan to make it stop spinning—and she missed.

She barely registered, “Alex, no!” before she bellyflopped and landed directly on top of Kara.

Kara caught her by the shoulders, so at least their faces didn’t smash together. But she wasn’t quite quick enough to stop the whole thing.

Alex was stunned into silence. Her wide, terrified eyes mere centimeters from Kara’s—but two seconds later, she cracked up laughing.

She rolled off Kara, wiping tears from her eyes, and landing in a pile of limbs on the side of the bed, “Nice catch.”

Kara smiled just a little, and Alex felt her heart swell.

I guess she had a sister after all.

…

The second time, Alex did it on purpose.

It was Kara’s first week of school, and it was a rough day—a lot of kids were teasing her again—and after dinner, she was lying on the couch watching _Roman Holiday._

Alex hated those sappy movies. But she hated seeing her sister this sad even more.

She remembered the fan incident and got an idea. She climbed up on the arm of the couch, balancing with her arms stretched out wide.

Kara’s eyes grew, “Alex, _no_.”

Alex grinned wickedly, “Alex, _yes_.”

And a second later she bellyflopped right on top of her sister—a full, face-first trust fall.

Kara didn’t even try to catch her, but the blanket she was under cushioned Alex’s blow.

Alex stayed lying on top of her, and propped her chin up on Kara’s chest to stare at her, “You ok?”

“No.”

Immediately she lifted herself up on her hands, “Did I hurt you?”

But Kara rolled her eyes, and a smirk twitched on Alex’s face—she was pretty sure Kara got that from her, and she was a little proud, “No.”

Alex sunk back down, putting her full body-weight on Kara, and squinted—like she was trying to see into Kara’s mind, “Do you want to talk about it?”

Kara turned away from Alex, back to the movie, “No.”

So Alex turned to the movie too.

Twenty minutes later, Alex fell asleep.

And when the movie was over, Alex was still asleep, and Kara fell asleep too.

…

By the third time, well…Alex was in full big sister mode by then.

She sprinted down the stairs, but Kara was faster—of course, she was always faster.

But their parents were home, and she wasn’t allowed to use her powers. Plus, Alex was no dummy—now 18 to Kara’s 16, she knew her sister pretty well.

Kara went left through the kitchen—which meant that she would run out the back door and through the backyard—but she also had to go down the hall and through the dining room, too.

Alex took the shortcut out the front door and ran around the side of the house, crouching next to the steps of the patio.

Kara was too busy running from Alex to consider she was no longer being chased, and when she stepped off the last step, Alex pounced.

Kara yelped as Alex pinned her down, sitting up on her knees, straddling Kara’s stomach, “What do we have here?”

She snatched the sketchbook that had fallen out of Kara’s hands and held it victoriously over her head.

She’d seen her doodling in it earlier, and she was pretty sure there was more than one page of hearts and a certain older classmate’s name in there… And Alex was _dying_ to get dirt on her sister, ever since Kara got her in trouble for sneaking out to Vicki Donahue’s party last weekend.

But Kara’s eyes glowed red, and before Alex could even open the notebook, it was in flames. She dropped it quickly and jumped away from Kara.

“Hey! You’re not allowed to—”

“What’s going on out here?!” Eliza had both hands on her hips in the doorway.

Both girls answered at once, “Nothing!”

Alex stepped in front of Kara, who used the smallest bit her freeze breath to put out the flames.

Eliza glared, “It better be nothing.”

“It is!” they sang in unison.

After a few seconds, she turned on her heel and went back in the house. 

Alex shoved Kara, “Cheater. You’re not _allowed_ to use your powers.”

Kara deflated, “Just leave me alone.”

She went back to her room, leaving Alex standing in the middle of the yard, feeling like the worst sister in the entire universe.

A few hours later, she opened the door to Kara’s room slowly, quietly.

She climbed up the foot of Kara’s bed and gently laid across Kara’s whole body.

Kara turned her head and wiped tears from her eyes, anger still in her voice, pleading, “Alex…no.”

Alex took Kara’s hand from her face and into her own, her own tears starting down her cheeks, “I’m sorry, Kara.”

Kara refused to look at her, but she didn’t pull away. So Alex stayed.

And she promised herself she’d never intentionally try to make Kara cry after that—even though she knew she’d probably fail to keep that promise a few times in their life.

…

And so it stayed, woven throughout their life, saved for particularly rough days or particularly silly days or moments when she knew Kara would be expecting it the least.

Like on Sister Nights, when Kara held the last of the ice cream just out of Alex’s reach. She’d get a glint in her eye, and Kara would brace herself.

Or when Alex found Kara in tears after the Black Mercy incident, or her break-up with James, or after the Daxamite Invasion…she’d get the smallest smirk on her face, and Kara would shake her head.

It was the one time Alex knew that when Kara said “no” she didn’t actually mean it.

And it reminded Kara that no matter if they fought, or what they’d been through, Alex was always there, was always protecting her, and was always going to be her big sister.


	7. In Which the Danvers Sisters are Both The Fun Parent...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Danvers Sisters Week on Tumblr - Day 5: Badass Sisters
> 
> This fic brought to you by [@queercapwriting](https://tmblr.co/mG0LfgJGfVsn59zdKUv6hRQ)‘s blog party and [this](https://queercapwriting.tumblr.com/post/164731839154/someone-mentioned-sanvers-baby-and-i-raise-you) ask by [@ownyourstage](https://tmblr.co/m9i7MKU8lRNdlSEWba1hASQ) and my inability to form rational and/or logical connections.
> 
> Also a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it unintentional nod to [@performativezippers](http://performativezippers.tumblr.com) because until I reread it about the third time, I didn’t even realize that I did it and you better believe it’s staying. 
> 
> Note: I had no idea about what to write on this day, but this party ask kickstarted my brain in some weird way...and I had THE. BEST. TIME. writing this. I don’t even care if nobody else likes it or it’s too long because I love it and I’m probably not going down this road again so every bit of story stayed in.
> 
> Feat. Supercorp and Sanvers and Danvers sisters and a lot of kids, y’all.

Lena pushes open the door of Noonan’s and holds it for Maggie behind her, “I just have a bad feeling about what we’re going to find when we return…”

Maggie sips her coffee, and they walk side-by-side down the street, “Let’s just enjoy the movie, ok? The kids are fine. They all have a parent present.”

Lena arches an eyebrow Maggie’s way, “You realize they all have the fun parent present, right?”

Maggie stops in her tracks, and Lena waits, “Have we really never left the kids with only the Danvers sisters?”

Lena winces, “In the past three years, I can’t actually think of any other time.”

Maggie thinks harder, “There had to be at least one…”

“Not since my kids were born.”

“What about—no, Lucy was there that day…” Maggie rubs her forehead, “There has to be  _one_.”

Lena shakes her head, “I really don’t think there is.”

Maggie smirks, “Well apparently we need to hang out more often.”

“We do,” Lena laughs, “but that might be a secondary problem.”

“So we’re skipping the movie?” Maggie frowns.

They stare between each other, not really _concerned_ about the kids, but…well, maybe a little concerned. Especially with how much junk food and trouble five kids and two fully grown kids in the form of Kara and Alex can get into in two hours.

They come to the same conclusion, “ _Nahh_ …they’ll be fine.”

…

Two hours later, they maybe regret that decision.

Lena opens the door to her and Kara’s apartment and it’s pitch black and nearly silent, except for some running and clatter coming from the end of the hall.

“What the—” she reaches for the light switch but a small hand suddenly grabs her arm and yanks her down to the floor.

_“Shhhhh!”_

Maggie kneels beside Lena and tugs the skinny little eight-year-old close her chest, “Gertie…what’s going on?”

Two very big, very serious, brown eyes look up at her through a mop of dark, messy curls, and Maggie melts. To anyone else, this kid is her clone, but she doesn’t really see it—she only sees the best thing her and Alex ever did. The first best thing, at least…tied with the other best things they repeated two more times just a few years later.

“I’m taking down Cadmus,” she says like it’s the most normal thing in the world. Then adds pointedly, “But Auntie Lena is going to blow my cover.”

Maggie has to bite her lip not to laugh at the words out of her eldest’s mouth. Lena looks away, burying her face in her shoulder until she can stop laughing.

“Auntie Lenaaaa! You’re going to ruin everything!”

Maggie straightens out her pink, unicorn-covered pajamas that make her look so tiny, and so absurdly adorable. When she picked them out last week, Alex whispered in Maggie’s ear, “I hope she never grows up,” and Maggie had to agree.

Lena composes herself and apologizes to her niece, “I’m sorry, love. I’m _sorry_. I’ll be quiet.”

Maggie now realizes she’s holding a toy sword.

“You’re taking down Cadmus with a sword? I feel like you might need some bigger guns, jellybean.”

Gertie looks down, disappointed, her curls falling into her face, “I know,” she pouts. “I had a bigger gun, but the Cadmus Agents blew it up. So now all I have is a sword.”

Maggie spins her around and pulls a hair tie from her wrist, wrangling the curls into a messy bun on top of her head, “I see…Well it’ll be more difficult, but it’s certainly not impossible.”

Gertie grins, and yep…there’s the dimples. Maggie’s heart could explode.

Lena asks the question they probably should’ve started with, “G, where is everybody else?”

She sighs dramatically, and her free hand goes to her hip, “Lainey is over there—” she points toward the kitchen with her sword, “She’s waiting for my count so we can raid Cadmus. Auntie Kara is with her because she’s in charge of giving her superpowers.”

Maggie and Lena exchange a look, but quickly have to look away because their going to make each other laugh—and then they’re going to get yelled at.

“Mama is with Maddie and Audrey, because they’re Cadmus Agents—” Lena’s brow furrows at the declaration that her twin toddlers are Cadmus Agents, but she doesn’t say anything, “—and she’s in charge of giving _them_ superpowers.” She thinks on that, “Although, their powers keep changing. I think that’s cheating.”

Maggie agrees, that’s kind of cheating—but she’ll save it for later, “And where’s your brother?”

“He’s the head of Cadmus.”

Maggie shakes her head, “Of course he is,” and Lena smirks. JJ is a particularly precocious five-year-old, and in more ways than one, the spitting image of Alex—but with somehow nearly twice her smarts. Until he came along, Maggie wasn’t even sure that was a level of intelligence a human could possess.

Gertie frowns, “Can I go play now?”

Maggie plants a kiss on her cheek that her daughter quickly wipes off, and pats her on the butt, “Go save the world.”

She grins and then gets very serious, “Don’t. Move.”

Maggie puts her hands up and Lena makes an “x” on her chest with her finger, “Promise.”

Their eyes now better adjusted to the dark, they stand near the door and watch the whole thing unfold.

Gertie slides under the kitchen table, and emerges seconds later with what they can only assume is her little sister and Kara, a few steps behind.

Kara winks at Lena, then scoops up her littlest niece, making her “fly” down the hallway by Gertie’s side.

Seconds later, there are screams and giggles and yelps—and more than one crash coming from down the hall.

The hall light flips on, and Lena figures it’s safe to turn the rest of the lights on as well.

She probably should’ve left them off.

The apartment is chaos. The kitchen table is littered with pizza boxes and half-empty chocolate milk cups, and a what appears to be multiple packages of half-eaten cotton candy and melted ice cream.

All the pillows and couch cushions in the living room are on the floor and piled into what was maybe a fort at one point, but definitely was no longer a safe structure.

Dolls and action figures and capes and trucks and stuffed animals and multiple pieces of children’s clothing are flung just about everywhere—and while it’s often the look of Lena and Kara’s apartment now that their twin daughters are three-years-old, it’s also amplified by the three other tiny humans currently running amok down the hall.

Lena trips over a race car, and Maggie lunges to grab her arm before she falls, and a stuffed alligator falls from the ceiling and lands between them. They exchange a look of sheer bewilderment and glance up to see a stuffed monkey, a baby doll, and a toy helicopter balancing on the stilled blades of the ceiling fan.

Lena squints, “Ok, but _how_ …?”

Maggie snorts and shakes her head, “I don’t even want to know.”

Suddenly a five-year-old boy with a similar head of dark curls—though a fairer complexion than Gertie— runs toward them, screaming and wielding a four-foot stuffed snake like a lasso. He’s completely naked, except for his tiny Mickey Mouse boxer briefs and the plastic Guardian mask on his face.

At his heels—in her Flash pajamas and clutching a stuffed shark almost as big as she is—is a wild six-year-old, with straight blonde hair and bright blue eyes that resemble neither of her mothers (she definitely got those from her grandmothers), but in the most adorable twist of fate, makes her look strikingly similar to her Aunt Kara that she shares exactly zero DNA with.

Gertie is a step behind, sword high in the air, also screaming.

He scrambles over the back of the couch, but his sisters are older and stronger and faster. Lainey throws the shark over the couch before clambering over yelling, “King Shark attack!” and Gertie’s over it a second later, both of them landing right on top of him, pinning him down.

“We beat Cadmus!” Gertie screams.

The three of them wrestle and start throwing pillows and couch cushions at each other. And at anyone else’s house, Maggie would make them stop—or, oh god…she hopes they wouldn’t even start—but here is also home, and she knows it’s fine.

Alex jogs up to her from the hall, laughing, and pulls Maggie into her arms with a kiss, “Hiya.”

Maggie hangs on to that kiss just a little longer than is probably appropriate, but all three kids are occupied, and she relishes in that fact. She brushes a piece of Alex’s hair away from her face with a crooked grin, “So…uh…what’s going on here, babe?”

Alex blushes and giggles and kisses her again, and Maggie quickly forgets her question.

A second later, Kara appears with a blonde-haired, green-eyed, squirming mass in her arms, an identical looking toddler at her heels, and the biggest grin on her face, “How was the movie?!”

Lena greets her with a kiss, “Good,” and hugs them both tight, squeezing the little toddler between them, “I missed you, my Madeleine.” The little girl grabs her neck, and Lena takes her from Kara and spins her around, making her giggle.

Her twin runs right into Maggie’s shins, and Maggie scoops her up and tosses her into the air, “Hey, buttercup!” before landing her on her hip.

Lena rubs something off Kara’s forehead that looks curiously like cotton candy, not even about to ask how it got there, but raises her eyebrows, “You made our daughters Cadmus Agents?”

Kara looks to Audrey at Maggie’s hip, who is now reaching both arms out to her. She grabs her and effortlessly flips her upside down, holding her by her ankles as she giggles and shrieks in delight, “They’re three, sweetheart. Destruction is what they do best.”

Lena can’t argue with that—although she wonders how much of the destruction was from the kids and how much was from the Danvers sisters.

Maggie shares a look that tells her she’s thinking the same thing, and they laugh.

Alex squints, “What’s that look for?” but Maggie only shakes her head.

Kara glares at Lena, “Something you’d like to share?”

Both twins are demanding to be put down, and Kara and Lena lower them to the floor, neither breaking eye contact, “Nope. Nothing.”

She grabs Lena by the waist and pulls her close, “I don’t believe you…” and Lena blushes.

Then there’s a loud _THWACK_ from the living room, and all four adults spin around.

JJ is now buried under a pile of pillows, squirming, yelling, “Let me go!”

Both of his sisters roll off the pile giggling, and he huffs as he stands, crossing his arms and sticking out his tongue, “No fair! Two against one.”

Lainey throws a pillow at him, but he ducks it easily, “It was three against two, dummy. Don’t be a sore loser.”

“ _You’re_ the dummy! Maddie and Audrey aren’t even playing anymore!”

Alex opens her mouth to intervene, but Gertie does it for her, albeit with slightly less composure, whacking the couch cushions with the toy sword, “Hey! No name-calling!”

Lainey and JJ sigh, mumbling, “Sorry...” in near unison.

Then Lainey’s demeanor changes instantly. She hops up on the couch with a grin, fist raised in victory, and pulls Gertie up with her, shouting and dancing around, “Badass Danvers sistersssss!”

Kara chokes, Lena bursts out laughing, and Alex and Maggie’s jaws drop.

Instantly Maggie smacks both Kara and Alex in the arm, glaring between them, “Oh my _God_ —”

“We didn’t teach them that!” they cry in unison. Lena’s not even trying to stifle her laughter, and Maggie doesn’t take her eyes off the Danvers sisters in front of her, even as she yells, “Elena Elizabeth Danvers! What did you just say young lady?!”

Lainey’s face drops and she turns slowly, sheepishly toward her mothers, pleading, “I—I didn’t…Gertie said it first!”

Now Maggie looks. Gertie scoffs, “Nuh-uh!” she points at her brother, “It was Jeremiah!”

Alex and Maggie’s eyes dart between all three of their guilty as hell children, and Lena and Kara usher their toddlers into the kitchen, failing completely at acting like adults.

They approach their three kids, now lined up on the couch, and Alex looks at her youngest, “Is that true, young man?”

He stares at her, chewing the inside of his cheek, and Maggie has to look away because he looks exactly like Alex right now and she’s ready to cave. Alex lifts his chin, her voice firm, but kind, “Buddy, where did you hear that word?”

He shrugs, “Uncle Winn said it to Uncle Jimmy last week. It sounded like a good thing.”

Alex bites back a smile, “That is not a word for kids, sir. I don’t want to hear you say it again.”

He nods, “Yes, mommy.”

She kisses him on the cheek and brushes his hair back, “I love you, bud.”

She turns to her daughters, now bouncing on the couch in their pajamas, “That goes for both of you girls, too.”

“Yes, ma’am,” they sing in unison.

The kids go back to playing in the living room, and Kara reappears over Alex’s shoulder, looking at them with a grin, “It wasn’t incorrect though…”

Maggie smacks her in the arm again, and she winces even though they both know it didn’t hurt. “Remember that every bad thing you teach our children is coming back to you just a few years later, kid.”

Kara laughs, “At what point am I old enough to not be called ‘kid’ anymore?”

And at that, Maggie hugs her tight, “Never, Little Danvers. Not ever.”

Kara beams, “I can accept that.”

She lets go and leans against Alex’s shoulder, “We should get these kids home and to bed, Ally.”

And three voices ring out in various whines of “Nooo!” and “Mama you _promised!”_ and “That’s not fair!”

She glances up slowly, and Alex looks about as guilty as her children did only moments ago, “Um...about that…”

Kara takes her sister’s hand and pulls her toward the kitchen, giggling, “Sleepover night! Hot chocolate and marshmallows and camping on the roof!”

All the kids scream and run toward Lena, who Maggie now realizes has been preparing multiple mugs of hot chocolate in the kitchen. Alex shrugs apologetically as she’s being dragged away, and Maggie can’t help but grin.

The kids follow Alex and Kara up the stairs like little ducklings, and Maggie grabs her son’s pajamas that she now sees lying on the kitchen counter. She looks to Lena, “Badass Danvers sisters, huh?”

Lena hands her a mug of hot chocolate, and they follow the train of kids up the stairs toward the roof, “Definitely badass.” But her voice turns more thoughtful, “All the things they do—and they’ve seen—and they still giggle and chase babies and get excited over hot chocolate and marshmallows and mesmerized by the stars.”

Now halfway up the stairs, Maggie has to stop and wipe her eyes with the back of her hand, “ _Jesus_ , Len. Why would you do that to me?”

Lena laughs lightly and ducks through the door where the rest of her family is waiting.

Maggie steps through a second later, leaning against the door for a minute to take in the sight in front of her.

Kara is stretched out on the outdoor, L-shaped couch, piles of pillows and blankets on the ground, and a now-sleeping Audrey in her arms, tucked under her chin. Lena squeezes on one side of her, kissing both her wife and their daughter in turn. And Alex is sitting on her other side, their middle child wrapped tightly in her arms on her lap.

JJ and Gertie are at the far edge of the roof, each with one of little Maddie’s hands in their own, taking turns looking through the telescope and pointing out the different constellations they know—and giggling every time Maddie incorrectly repeats one in her adorable, three-year-old babble.

“Buddy,” she calls. He turns and she tosses his pajamas. They land on his face, and he giggles, “Put these on, my nakkie baby.”

He rolls his eyes, “ _Mama_ , I’m not a baby.”

“I know. But you’ll always be _my_ baby,” she blows him a kiss.

He sighs, but she sees the small smile as he pulls on his dinosaur pajamas.

She takes a seat next to Alex, and Lainey crawls into her lap, burrowing as close as she can to Maggie’s chest. She instantly wraps the tiny, slightly shaking frame in her arms. Maggie and Alex exchange a frown, because their little hurricane—their little pistol who always leaps and never looks—is also deathly afraid of heights, and equally adamant about not being left out.

She’s fine with the height of the monkey bars and the top of the slide at the park, and also apparently, with the jump from the sixth stair that just last week she declared was “A new record!” in how far she could leap in a single bound. 

And she was fine with a piggyback ride, but utterly inconsolable the one—and only—time James tried to put her on his shoulders (and James covered it well, but Maggie and Alex made sure to reassure him later, because he was very nearly inconsolable too).

They rarely knew where the line that she couldn’t cross was until it was right in front of them, but they both knew the roof was well beyond that line.

And they’re working at it, and she’s getting better—but it’s tough when your aunt and uncle can fly, and your brother and sister are obsessed with the stars, and your grandparents are martians, and your little cousins will probably be able to fly too—although neither Lena and Kara, nor Alex and Eliza, can figure out if or when that will happen.

Gertie comes running up to them, nearly toppling over the table of hot chocolate, before Alex steadies her, “Slow down there, munchkin.”

“Sorry!” she giggles. But then her whole disposition changes and she takes a couple slow steps up to her sister, getting close to her face. She tugs the blanket away from her sister’s chin gently, and her dimples flash when she gives her a little head tilt—and Alex swears her heart stops.

“Lainey?” she whispers.

Her sister doesn’t answer, but is watching her attentively.

“We just found Saturn through the telescope! And I…I know that’s your favorite. So…I just thought…do you want to come look at it?”

Maggie watches the internal struggle of her six-year-old play across her face and feels her little body tense. But to her and Alex’s surprise, Lainey slides off Maggie’s lap and takes her sisters hand, and Gertie smiles, and slowly, carefully, leads her baby sister toward the telescope.

Two steps later, Maggie realizes Lainey’s other hand is still tightly clutching a fistful of her shirt, and those big blue eyes look up at her, demanding her to come with them. She happily complies.

Alex picks up the discarded blanket, throws it over her lap, and leans into Kara’s side, watching her girls walk to the other side of the roof.

When they get to the edge, Lainey stops at the little step she needs to stand on to see into the telescope, but Gertie puts two careful and solid arms around her waist, and her little sister grips her shoulder tight as she steps up—one hand still clutching Maggie’s shirt.

She looks down her big sister, terrified, but Gertie nods supportively, “It’s ok. I got you.”

And Maggie’s hand flies to her mouth, but still isn’t quicker than the tears in her eyes. And the sob she hears behind her breaks her heart, because she knows it belongs to Alex. But this one tiny hand is still clutching her shirt, and she wouldn’t dare leave her daughter’s side, but at the same time it’s killing her not to be able to get to her crying wife right now.

She closes her eyes and takes a deep breath before twisting until she can see Alex over her shoulder, but Kara’s already got her free arm around Alex, whispering over and over, as tears stream down her sister’s cheeks, “I got you, Alex. I got you.”

And to their left, Lena is staring up at her. She winks at Maggie, then mouths, “Badass sisters.”

And she’s probably talking about Alex and Kara, but she could be talking about Gertie and Lainey, and Maggie’s pretty sure in a few years, it’ll be about Audrey and Maddie.

And Maggie grins through her tears.

Badass sisters, indeed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heyyy friends! So a few lovely readers have asked for more, and I am here to promise you there will be at least one more in the coming weeks. Then we'll see where it goes from there. 
> 
> You all are the best, and I appreciate every single one of you who took the time to read this thing that I had so much fun writing. :)


	8. “I mean I know you said it was going to be tacky. But this is tacky.”

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yesterday I went with Supercorp, today it’s Karolsen. And Sanvers, of course. Also, I made Maggie say “fuck.” It seemed appropriate.
> 
> @queercapwriting‘s Danvers Sisters Week - Day 6: Double Date

“It’s a surprise, Maggie,” Kara smirks.

“It’s not really a surprise if I’m the only one who doesn’t know what it is.”

“Wait—you really let her pick this?” Alex whines. She’s standing in Kara’s kitchen, monitoring a massive amount of popcorn that’s cooking on the stove. “It took _ten years_ for me to get her to stop watching it!”

“First of all, I didn’t  _let her_ do anything. She made her own decision.”

Kara stands a little straighter at his words, and then James shrugs and sneaks a wink at her standing next to him, “but…she did make a really convincing argument,” he grins.

“Well I’d like to know what that _possibly_ could’ve—”

“Al—,” Maggie coughs a little too loud.

“What?” she turns away from the counter and toward the rest of the now-silent room to see Kara grinning wickedly, eyebrows raised, and James staring intensely at the table, redness flushed up to the tips of his ears.

“Oh. _Oh_ …”  The realization dawns on her and she shakes the thought from her head, “Gross.”

Maggie laughs and slips a hand, palm-up, toward James, who slaps it reluctantly, but laughs.

Alex throws a dish towel at Maggie, “Did you just high five him?”

“Technically, it was more of a low-five…” she quips, flashing her dimples.

And Alex has to focus on staying mad at the sight of those dimples, “You are unbelievable.”

“What? He scored! He earned it.”

“That is our baby sister.”

“Um, yes it is. And if she were standing closer, I would’ve low-fived her too—because she _also_ scored.”

James grabs the bowl of popcorn before Alex can even put it on the table, “I’m going…far away from wherever this conversation is headed…”

“You’re a true gentleman, James Olsen!” Maggie calls after him.

He gives her a small salute and plops onto the couch.

Alex slides her hands around Maggie’s waist, shaking her head.

Kara laughs, “Can you please stop talking about us scoring?”

“Can you please not make us watch this movie?” Alex counters.

“Definitely not.”

“Then, no.”

Kara leans toward them with a grin, whispering, “Fine. Just remember these stories can go both ways…”

And Maggie’s impressed at how threatening it sounds. She folds instantly, “Noted.” 

She turns away from Alex, and leads her toward the living room, “Let’s get this torture started, shall we?”

Kara follows her sisters, watching as Alex sits first and pulls Maggie onto her lap, both of them giggling at nothing and everything—and Kara can’t help but smile. 

She’s seen her sister through good times and bad for well over a decade, but nothing, _nothing,_ that comes even close to this version of Alex. And she grumbles when they get handsy—like any good little sister would—but she doesn’t actually hate it...she just doesn’t always need to witness it.

Then she’s being pulled to the other end of the couch, with James catching her easily on his lap, planting a kiss on her lips, she grins, “Oh…hi.”

He grins too, “Hey.”

She breathes in one last look at him before turning her attention to the room, “Ok! So this is the perfect movie.”

“False.”

Popcorn hits Alex in the face half a second later.

“It _is!”_ Kara insists. “There’s something for everyone! A photoshoot for James, singing for me, aliens for Alex…and…uh…I don’t know, military bootcamp for you, Mag.”

Maggie looks between Alex and Kara, “The _fuck_ is this movie?”

Kara beams, “The greatest movie...ever made.”

Alex buries her forehead in Maggie’s shoulder, “It’s not.”

“I’m gonna have to blindly agree with my fiancée on this one.”

Kara takes a deep, dramatic breath, “Are you ready…for _Spice World_ …”

“Jesus christ…” Maggie groans, “She better be _really_ good in bed, Olsen!”

“Maggie!” Kara and Alex yell in unison. 

James buries his head in his hands, trying not to laugh, “A gentleman does not kiss and tell.”

She stares him down, “Mmhmm…”

In under ten minutes, the real trouble starts, “Drink every time they say ‘girl power,’” Maggie snorts.

Two minutes later, “Drink every time you see the Union Jack,” James adds.

Alex jumps in quickly, “Drink every time Victoria Beckham looks like she’s going to murder you with her eyes.”

Maggie toasts her for the addition, and they sip their drinks and kiss each other just long enough to make Kara uncomfortable.

“You guys are ruining this whole movie,” Kara pouts.

Alex giggles and grins at her sister, “No, this whole movie is ruining this whole movie.”

James hands Kara a glass with an exaggerated frown, “Come on…you know you want to…”

She crosses her arms, and he kisses her cheeks, her nose, her lips until she grins and relents. She pushes him away, swipes the glass from his hand, and  sighs, “Drink every time they put up a peace sign...” she mumbles.

“Ayyyyy!” Maggie, Alex and James all toast her, and Kara can’t help but laugh.

They all drink.

Only twenty minutes later…they’re pretty close to drunk.

They yell throughout the rest of the movie, “Oh my God, is that Meat Loaf?!”

“There’s no way all that fits inside a bus. I don’t care if it has two floors. That is A SWING.”

“Why yes, Victoria. That _is_ an inappropriate outfit for boating.”

“THAT’S NOT EVEN WHAT ALIENS LOOK LIKE!”

Followed closely by, “THAT’S NOT EVEN WHAT BOOTCAMP LOOKS LIKE!”

“Why yes, Victoria! That is _also_ an inappropriate outfit for bootcamp!”

“She’s never dressed for the occasion...”

“Wait—wait—is that Hugh Laurie?!”

“Who approved this movie?”

“Who _paid for_ this movie?!”

“This is why we can’t have nice things.”

“There is not nearly enough testosterone in this…”

“Look, James, there’s some male background dancers!”

“Oh my god, _no!_ That is not an acceptable compromise! Take them away!”

“This needs to be our Halloween costume.”

“I bet we could get Lena and Lucy to complete the Fab Five.”

“Wait—what about James and Winn?”

James doesn’t want to know the answer to that question.

Kara can barely speak she’s laughing so hard, “They can—they...can—they can be the backup dancers!”

The laughter that ensues requires them to pause the movie—because Maggie was in the middle of taking a drink and now she’s choking, Alex is clapping her on the back with one hand and wiping tears from her eyes with the other, and James is wrestling a giggling Kara, who’s trying to look up where to buy the backup dancer outfits on her phone.

…

J’onn doesn’t bother inquiring about their date night the next morning. All four of them are moving too sluggishly and all of them are clutching way-too-large coffees and still wearing sunglasses—even though they’ve been inside the DEO for the past hour.

…

The next movie night is Maggie’s turn, and when Kara and James walk through the door she can’t even contain her excitement.

James turns around from hanging up his and Kara’s coats, and she whips the DVD case out from behind her back, holding it high in the air with the biggest grin they’ve ever seen.

Tara Reid, Rachel Leigh Cook, and Rosario Dawson are staring back at him. 

_Josie and the Pussycats._

Kara nearly knocks Maggie over, spinning her in a hug, both of them giggling already.

James groans, searching the room for Alex, his eyes pleading, “You let her pick this movie?!”

Alex points a finger at him, “First of all, I didn’t _let her_ do anything,” then she grins wickedly and shrugs, “...and she made a really convincing argument.”

Kara stops spinning Maggie and pushes her away to cover her ears, “No. No no no…”

James folds Kara into his arms, shaking his head, “I can’t even look at you right now.”

Maggie turns around and high-fives Alex, both laughing.

Alex tosses him a bottle of whiskey, which he expertly catches in one hand, “I can’t help how traditions are made, Olsen.”

He grins despite himself, “…I guess I can drink to that."

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In case you need context (because I’m fully aware almost no one shares my love of such underrated masterpieces) just Google “Spice World backup dancers.” 
> 
> If you’ve found photos men in purple shiny jumpsuits, you have found what I’m talking about. :)


	9. Promise?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Final day of Danvers Sisters Week. "She's My Best Friend" prompt. Can you tell I'm a little mentally exhausted? :P

Leaning against a wall, slightly apart from the crowd that’s gathered in front of her, Kara’s eyes are brimming with tears.

A hand slips around her waist and holds her side, and another grasps her upper arm and pulls her close.

She gently lays her head onto the shoulder that’s appeared beside her.

Her voice shakes, and it’s barely above a whisper, “She’s my best friend.”

The two of them look out in the middle of the dance floor, where—wrapped in Jeremiah’s arms, swaying along to what will now be one of the happiest and saddest songs Kara’s ever heard—Alex is downright glowing.

“And you’re hers, kid,” Maggie whispers.

Kara looks to her and tears start down her cheeks, “I know you will…but just…take care of her, ok? Promise?”

She smiles and wipes Kara’s tears away gently, even as her own are threatening, “Always,” she promises.


	10. Nerdiest Nerds in the Multiverse: Part II - Superhero Showdown

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Follow up to my Danvers Sisters Week post: Nerdiest Nerds in the Multiverse (Chapter 5 in this work).
> 
> This one’s for Cap. They asked for more…and I hope this suffices. (:

After dinner at Joe’s house, they’re all sitting around sipping on drinks, too excited to call it an evening just yet.

Joe, Wally, and Cisco sit across the couch, with Caitlin and Kara sitting on the floor across from them. Alex and Maggie share one chair, and Barry and Iris are sharing another.

Alex still has so many questions, and—amazingly—no one seems bothered by her yet. She’d just finished an in-depth description of the transmatter portal that Caitlin and Cisco are still mulling over.

Suddenly her face changes, “So…who wins in a race: Barry or Kara?”

Barry and Kara exchange grins—they’ve raced before—but they let everyone else answer.

The responses come all at one time…

Iris, Cisco, Joe and Caitlin shout, “Barry!”

Alex and Maggie shout, “Kara!”

And Wally shouts, “I would!”

Team Flash looks slightly embarrassed to not have thought of that. Wally stares at all of them, “Wow, guys. Thanks.”

They all start muttering apologies, but Alex’s interest is piqued, “Wait—you’re faster than Barry?”

Wally gives her a look, like _duh_. Barry winces, “Yeah…he actually is.”

“Wow. I mean, _Kid_ Flash…I guess I just assumed…”

Kara crosses her arms, and stares pointedly at Maggie, “Yeah, well _Kid Danvers_ is faster than regular Danvers, so maybe you shouldn’t have assumed.”

“Shots fired,” Iris mutters.

Cisco looks confused, “Who’s Kid Danvers?”

Kara rolls her eyes, “Apparently I am.”

Maggie blows her a kiss from across the room, “You love it.”

Kara tries not to grin…and fails, “Shut up.”

“Whatever Little Danvers,” she smirks, “Hey! Is that better?”

“Hardly,” Kara deadpans.

Alex’s mind is still turning, still calculating, “So like… _how_ much faster than Barry are you?”

Barry and Wally have a bit of a staring contest, and Wally grins, “I’m only getting faster.”

“I’m not exactly slowing down.”

Iris rolls her eyes, “Oh brother.”

Joe takes a swig of his beer and looks between his sons, “Why don’t you just race?”

Barry and Wally whip their heads around at him, “What?” they say in unison.

He shrugs, “Race. Find out who’s faster.”

“Dad!” Iris yells, but he just laughs her off.

Alex looks at Joe, “I love that idea,” then to Caitlin, “I assume you have something that measures their speed?”

Caitlin shrugs, “Of course I do.”

“Wait, wait—” Cisco stands in the middle of the room with a grin, “are we about to have a superhero showdown? Because I think…we’re about to have…a Super…Hero… _Showdown_.”

There’s a chorus of _ooohs_ in the room.

“Oh! Can I race them too?” Kara shouts.

Wally snorts, “You can try…”

There’s an awkward silence and a few sharp inhales.

“You’re only a human,” she shoots back.

“A _meta_ human.”

“Still human.”

He laughs and takes another sip of his drink, “Bring it, blondie.”

“Oh don’t worry, I will,” she grins.

Maggie sits up suddenly, “But then…which is colder? Kara’s freeze breath or Killer Frost.”

The room _ooooohs_ for a second time.

Alex instantly kisses her, and Maggie blushes, “You are a genius.” Maggie shrugs, but grins.

Kara looks to Caitlin, but Caitlin’s eyes are wide, and there’s fear there, “I—I don’t know…I’m not great at controlling my powers.”

Cisco puts a hand on her shoulder, his voice suddenly serious, “We got your back, Caitlin. Nothing’s gonna happen.”

She wrestles with the idea, “I don’t know…”

Barry looks her way too, “Hey, we got you—but you do too. You can control it. You’re strong enough.”

Maggie backpedals, “I’m sorry—I didn’t realize. It was just a thought…”

Caitlin shakes her head, “No, no. It’s fine…” she thinks on it and looks to Cisco, who nods, “It could be fun.”

“Yessss…” Alex hisses.

Iris frowns, “Hey, I wanna play too. What can I do?”

Alex snaps her fingers, “Shootout!”

Iris high-fives her, but Joe immediately points at Alex then Iris, “No.”

Iris waves him off, “Psshhh…I can fire a gun, Dad. And _well_.”

“I know you can, ok? But still…no.”

Maggie grins at him—dimples at all—trying to work her charm, “Come on, sir. If we have a shootout, then you can play too.”

He considers that for a moment, then smirks, “Alright, I’m in.”

Cisco frowns now, “No fair. No one here has the same powers as me.”

Caitlin looks up at him, “You can be the Superhero Showdown…uh…Commissioner!”

“Yes!” He jumps up, “Done. I shall rule up on the Iron Throne.”

Joe glares, “Sit down.”

He does immediately, “Yes, sir.”

Everyone laughs, and suddenly a small notebook and pen lands on Cisco’s lap.

“Alright Commissioner—what are the challenges?”

Cisco stares blankly, “Where did you even get a pen and paper so quickly?”

“A good reporter is always prepared,” Iris grins.

…

In under an hour, they’re back at S.T.A.R. Labs.

They’ve gathered in one of the big open rooms for their first challenge. Cisco is presiding over them on a small platform, with a bullhorn in his hands. Caitlin and Wally are behind a few monitors, with Barry watching from the corner and Kara hovering above, refereeing the competition.

“First up: Tact Team Target Practice,” he calls.

Below him, Joe, Maggie, Iris and Alex are lined up on one end of the room, with a set of targets increasing in distance until the final one at the far end—ten targets all together.

“Ok, the task at hand is simple: when you hit the bullseye of the target in front of you, it drops. Then do the same for the following targets. First one to knock down all ten, wins.”

All four of them pull handguns out of their holsters, but Maggie grabs Alex’s arm, “Oh, no you don’t, Danvers. No alien gun.” She laughs, “Cheater.”

“It’s not _cheating_ …” but Maggie arches an eyebrow, and Alex puts it down with a sigh, “Fiiiine.” She swaps it out for her standard DEO-issued gun instead.

Cisco does his best announcer voice, “Are youuuuu readdddyyyy?”

All four of them raise their guns.

“On your marks…get set…” he waits… “Go!”

The first row of targets go down simultaneously on the first shot. The second row follows pretty closely behind. Iris misses the third target, but catches up quickly at the fourth—which also all fall about the same time.

Joe misses the fifth target.

Alex misses the sixth.

Iris misses the seventh.

Maggie misses the eighth.

Alex and Iris recover though, and hit the ninth first—followed quickly by Joe and Maggie.

But Maggie’s tenth goes down half a second before Iris’, followed immediately by Alex, then Joe.

All four holster their weapons.

“Yessss!” Maggie jumps in the air.

Alex pouts for only a second, then tugs her fiancée close, “Nice work, Mags.”

“Thank you,” she grins and Alex pulls her into a long kiss.

“Lookin’ a little rusty there, pops,” Wally calls.

Joe turns silently, with eyebrows raised, and Wally winces, “Um…I mean…nice shot, Dad!”

“Uh-huh. That’s what I thought you said.”

Alex high-fives Iris, and Maggie follows suit, “Nice work. Pretty impressive, West.”

“Thank you,” she looks pointedly at Joe, “It’s nice to be appreciated.”

“You’re all grounded,” he grumbles at his kids.

“You know…” Alex thinks aloud, “We could make it a little more interesting…”

Iris cocks an eyebrow, “What did you have in mind?”

Alex looks up at her sister with a grin, “A moving target?”

“ _Alex…_ ” Kara warns.

But Maggie, Iris and Joe are all looking at her too—and Alex is giving her The Pout.

She groans, “You’re lucky it’s your birthday and I’m the best sister in the entire multiverse.”

“You _are_ the best sister in the entire multiverse,” Alex grins.

…

Alex wins the moving target challenge easily.

But they’re all impressed—because Joe had both Maggie and Iris beat by the fifth shot.

He earns a round of applause from the rest of Team Flash, and he’s proud of himself, “Yeah. That’s right. Who’s rusty now?”

Wally puts his hands up, “My bad. That was impressive.”

Iris looks between Alex and Kara though, “You guys have done that before.”

They look at each other and blush, “Maybe once or twice…” Alex admits.

…

They clear the room of the targets and spent casings that bounced off the targets—and Kara—just moments earlier.

Barry and Wally hold two fire hoses that they’ve pulled from other places in the lab. Barry stands beside Caitlin, and Wally next to Kara.

Caitlin looks quizzically at them, “Hoses? Aren’t we figuring out who’s colder? Can’t we just use thermometers?”

“No, because that’s not fun,” Cisco answers.

Joe laughs, “So what are they doing, then?”

Cisco grins, “Ice sculptures.”

Kara and Caitlin stare at each other, Kara shakes her head, “I don’t know how to do that.”

“Yeah, me either Cisco.”

“Well you guys ruin all the fun, don’t you?”

They all laugh, and he sighs, “Just make it snow or something. Do something cool, ok?”

Caitlin shrugs and Kara does the same, “Uh…ok?”

Cisco looks at Wally and Barry, “Ready guys?”

They nod.

He picks up the (totally unnecessary) bullhorn, “Ladieeeesss and gentlemennnn…The Female Frozen…uh…Frenzy! begins in three…two…one…GO!”

Barry and Wally turn on the hoses and spray water in front of Caitlin and Kara, respectively. Huge streams shoot out and Kara reacts first. She blows on it hard, while it freezes in a heap that nearly reaches the ceiling. The water continues pouring on top of it, and she doles out a softer blow, turning it to snow that falls gently on top of the mountain of ice below. 

It’s kind of impressive, actually.

Caitlin, meanwhile, freezes the stream of water into a twisted, delicate arrangement that towers to the ceiling. It curls and bends in multiple places—and looks incredibly artistic.

“Water off!” Cisco shouts, and Barry and Wally oblige, “Judges?”

Iris, Maggie, Joe and Alex wander between the two incredible ice sculptures in front of them, weighing the pros and cons.

“I like what you did with the snow, sis…” but Alex looks at Caitlin’s twisted, curled, frozen sculpture and just…stares, “but I gotta go with Caitlin on this one.”

“I agree, kid. _Damn_ , Snow. That thing belongs in a museum. Sorry Little Danvers,” Maggie stands in front of Caitlin’s work, and Iris stands next to her.

“Sorry, Supergirl. I gotta stick with Team Flash here.”

Joe considers both, but stands next to Kara, “I like it Caitlin, but I always wanted to climb Mount Everest, and I kind of feel like I don’t have to now.”

“Caitlin’s the winner!” Cisco shouts.

Kara only grins, “Well done, Caitlin,” and she hugs her tight. “You’re more in control of your powers than you think…”

“Yeah, maybe so,” Caitlin grins.

…

They ditch the empty lab, and return to the Cortex. Cisco is manning the monitors with Iris, Caitlin, Alex, Maggie and Joe around him.

Kara, Barry and Wally are suited up somewhere outside the city, ready to race.

Wally eyes Kara, “I feel like flying is an unfair advantage. We have to go around all the things you can just…soar right over.”

Barry pulls his mask over his face and grins, “You’re not scared now, are you?”

“No. Of course not. I’m just…thinking logically.”

“If you were thinking logically, you’d have given up already, because she’s an alien—and _that’s_ the unfair advantage,” Alex’s voice rings through their ears. 

Kara beams.

Inside the Cortex, Joe looks to Alex, “Twenty bucks on Wally.”

Alex doesn’t hesitate, “Forty on the alien.”

“Alright, alright… _now_ it’s interesting,” Cisco muses. He holds down the comms button for the three at the starting line, “Just a second guys, we’re uh…just making some final adjustments over here…technical things…”

“My money’s on Barry,” Iris chimes in.

Maggie slides a twenty on the counter, “I don’t bet against a Danvers.”

“You guys are betting on us, aren’t you?” Barry laughs.

Cisco scoffs, “We would _never_ —” he lets go of the button again and nudges Joe, “Twenty on Barry.”

Caitlin thinks hard, “Sorry, I’ve gotta go with Kid Flash.”

Wally grins, “They’re definitely betting on us.”

The crew in the Cortex place their bets and Cisco sets up three monitors to track Wally, Barry and Kara. “Alright, heroes…it’s time for our main event…” he does his best game show host impression, “The Superhero Speedster Showdowwwwwnnnn.”

Wally pulls his mask over his face now, and Kara digs her heels into the starting line between him and Barry.

“On your marks…get set…” he pauses for a few agonizing seconds, “Go!”

Wally has the lead out of the gate, but Kara and Barry are neck-in-neck, not far behind. They approach the city in a matter of seconds, and the three of them converge at one intersection, pushing themselves further, faster—then suddenly there’s a huge _BOOM_ and a flash of light—and they’re gone.

Maggie’s jaw drops, but Caitlin, Alex, and Cisco all have looks of sudden realization on their face.

None of them thought this through.

Iris snorts, and Joe buries his head in his hands, “ _Ciscooo_ …”

But Cisco’s already putting on his goggles, “Yep. That’s my bad…My bad. I didn’t think…I’ll get ‘em. Back in a fla—” he clears his throat, “I’ll be right back.”

He opens a breach and is gone a second later.

“What just happened?” Maggie asks.

Caitlin’s voice is timid, “Uh…their combined speed…it uh…opened a breach.” She winces, “I didn’t…I didn’t think of that…” she looks to Alex, “Did you?”

Alex shakes her head slowly, stunned into silence.

“A breach to where?”

“Well…” she looks helplessly between Joe and Iris, and shrugs.

_Meanwhile…_

Kara, Barry and Wally come to a stop in the middle of the desert. Barry and Wally turn slowly in a circle, taking in their surroundings, but Kara spots a familiar, well-camouflaged building ahead.

“Uh-oh…”

A sharp voice cuts her off, “ _Supergirl_?! What are you—wait… _Flash_?”

Kara turns toward the figure walking toward them and shrinks slightly under her stare, “Heyyyy Lucy…you remember Barry, right?”

Barry offers a small wave, and Lucy lowers her weapon and shakes her head, “What are you doing here? Aren’t you working downtown now?”

Kara puts an arm around her shoulders, “So, funny story…”


	11. Christmas Magic

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Is it too early to talk about Christmas? (Spoiler alert: not here it isn’t!)
> 
> There were a few requests for a follow-up on this story from Danvers Sisters Week about Sanvers and Supercorp and their gang of kiddos (Chapter 7 in this work).
> 
> This is your follow-up! 
> 
> Aaaand, as is my way, nothing really happens, there’s very little plot, but everyone hangs out and has a cuddly, fluffy Christmas. (Sorry, I’ve started to just embrace it at this point. Lol.)
> 
> It’s also very, very long. I really tried (and really failed) to make it shorter, and at some point just gave up and kept going until there was an end. 
> 
> Happy reading! :) Feat. Sanvers and Supercorp and sisters and Christmas still a lot of kids, y’all.

They had a lot of traditions in the Super Family, and the last few months of the year were a whirlwind of chaos and celebration.

Halloween is J’onn and M’gann’s.

Without fail, every one of his Earth kids (and now grandkids) has fallen prey to one of his pranks—and by now they know it’s coming, but he still manages to pull it off. And every one of them loves the one day a year when everyone else at the DEO gets a glimpse of the Space Dad side of J’onn—even if they’re sure to never mention it ever again.

Thanksgiving is Kara’s.

Because all Kara ever wanted was a family, and that’s what their Thanksgiving is all about. It’s endless amounts of food, and chocolate pecan pie, and Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade balloons, and after-dinner snuggles, and the whole family together under one roof for the whole day.

Hanukkah is Alex’s.

Those traditions run deep in her veins, and go back to a time before Kara. A quieter, simpler time with just her and Eliza and Jeremiah. Of course, it’s since included her sister—and then her wife, and their friends, and now her sister-in-law, and all their combined children—and she couldn’t be happier about it.

New Year’s Eve is Lena’s.

No one throws a gala quite like she does. She relishes having this one night a year when the adults can be adults, and they all get dressed to the nines and dance and drink and flirt a little more than they would in front of the tiny eyeballs that demand all their attention. It also helps that she knows, every single year, her wife makes it her mission to find an outfit that makes her jaw drop and her heart skip a beat—although Kara would tell you the exact same story.

Christmas is Maggie’s.

She had shed a lot of the religious aspects of the holiday (though the religious upbringing occasionally showed itself—and sometimes she liked it, and sometimes she didn’t), but the magic…the magic of Christmas had stayed with her even after all these years. There were some traditions you couldn’t shake, and despite the few years where she’d hated the holiday, most of her memories of it were full of family and snowmen and baking and cheesy movies—and that was what she wanted to give her kids, and her whole family.

…

On Christmas Eve, Kara, Lena, and their twin three-year-olds, Audrey and Maddie, pack up to spend the night and all of Christmas Day at Alex and Maggie’s house.

As soon as they open the front door, their blonde-haired, green-eyed little girls take off at a sprint to seek out their cousins. Audrey finds Gertie first—reading a book in the living room—and climbs right onto the eight-year-old’s lap. Gertie’s big brown eyes go wide, and her long, dark curls cover her face when she hugs her little cousin tight.

Maddie takes off down the hallway, while JJ and Lainey come barreling down the stairs in the middle of a sword fight—and if you looked quick enough, you’d think it was a tiny version of Alex and Kara.

Five-year-old JJ’s short, dark hair is similar to Gertie’s, but he’s got Alex’s fair skin and he doesn’t have the dimples that both his sister’s share. Lainey is an enigma—their fiery six-year-old has blonde hair and blue eyes. And although genetically, it’s probably due to her grandmothers, Kara takes full credit whenever she can.

“Hey!” Maggie greets them from the kitchen, where she’s currently mixing up no less than 10 different colors of icing. “Alex is…” she knits her eyebrows, “Uh…I don’t actually know. She’s somewhere though,” she laughs.

“Alex is right here,” comes a voice from behind them. She wraps up her sister and then her sister-in-law in hugs before Maddie runs right into the back of her knees. She picks up her niece and tosses her in the air as she giggles, then places her on her hip, “You wanna decorate cookies, Maddie?”

“Cookie!” she screams—and that gets all the kids attention. They come barreling through the house toward Maggie in the kitchen.

“Whoa, whoa, easy kiddos.” They slow down a little, but still scramble up into chairs, already digging through a pile of cookie cutters before she even takes the cookie dough out of the fridge.

Maggie has spent the last two days baking. It started with her grandmother’s almond cake, then her mom’s thumbprint cookies—both black raspberry and apricot. Then she made stacks of vanilla pizzelles. She made Alex’s favorite chocolate peanut butter buckeyes. She made dark chocolate peppermint cookies for Winn, and white chocolate cranberry cookies for J’onn and Lena, and chocolate pecan pie cookies for Kara, and—thankfully—James’ favorite are the cookies the kids are about to bake now.

And that’s what the kids spend the next couple hours doing. It’s a few hours of cookie cutters and icing and sprinkles—and then every kid needs a bath to get the icing off of their hands, their faces, their hair.

It’s followed by cookie-filled kids on the verge of bellyaches, and one small fight over which Christmas movie they’re going to watch before bed.

“The Grinch!” JJ shouts.

“No, Elf!” Gertie insists.

“Miracle on 34th Street!”

“If you don’t work it out before your cousins get downstairs, you’re not watching anything,” Alex warns.

The bargaining begins.

“Ok, but we already watched Elf last week, Gertie.”

“Fiiine,” she resigns. Then looks to her brother, “Last year we tried to watch The Grinch and Audrey and Maddie cried.”

“Oh yeah,” JJ frowns.

They both look at Lainey, and she suddenly buckles under the attention, “I mean…we don’t have to watch this one if you don’t want to. It’s just my favorite.”

JJ shrugs, “It’s fine.”

Gertie takes it gently from her hands, “It’s a good one, Lainey. Let’s watch it.”

…

Before the movie though, there’s one special present they get to open—a gift they get every year.

It started as a joke when Gertie was born. Winn made her a tiny reindeer onesie for her first Christmas, complete with antlers and a little red nose on the hood—and they _loved_ it. So she got a snowman one for her second Christmas. And by her third Christmas, baby Elena wore the reindeer hand-me-down, and Gertie was a tiny Santa Claus.

They’ve since moved on from holiday themes and into whatever the kids ask for.

Lena pulls five identically-wrapped boxes out from under the Christmas tree as the kids sit eagerly around her. Maggie is behind the kids on the couch, and Alex is on Kara’s lap in the armchair near the fireplace.

“You guys ready?”

The loud screams tell her they are, in fact, ready.

“Ok, ok…quietly. Sheesh.” The kids just giggle.

She hands them each the shirt-sized boxes and watches as they all try hard not to tear it to pieces as soon as it touches their hands.

They look at her with wide, eager eyes, and she laughs, “Well go ahead, open them up!”

She kneels next to her daughters on the floor and helps them with the ribbons—though they don’t really need help getting through the rest of the packaging.

JJ’s first, “Yesss!” He holds up a soft, dark brown onesie that, once he puts it on, is going to make him look like a little bear.

Maggie and Alex exchange smirks, and Kara glances between them with confusion. She whispers to Alex, “A bear?”

Alex laughs, “That’s what he asked for.”

Their insanely intelligent little boy—who loves and knows about and is obsessed with everything and anything to do with space and dinosaurs and physics—asked for bear pajamas this year over any other kind. She and Maggie had no clue where it came from, or the reasoning behind it—he’d never shown a particular interest in bears before—but he was sure of his decision.

Lainey holds up a dragon one. It’s midnight blue with dark, shimmery wings, and orange horns and bumps along the tail. She’s stripped down to her underwear before either Maggie or Alex had a chance to stop her, and zips it up moments later, flying directly into Maggie’s lap and hugging her neck tight.

Maggie laughs, “So you like it?”

She is beside herself. She stands on the couch cushion next to Maggie and pulls the hood on, jumping up and down, “I love it!”

Lainey rolls off the couch and runs to Alex, hugging her tight too, “I love it, Mama. Thank you.”

Alex holds her tight and kisses her cheek, “I love _you_ , my little Lainey-bug. And you remember that thank you tomorrow when you see your Uncle Winn.”

“I will!” she runs over to sit by her sister.

Gertie’s is a greyish-white with black spots, cat ears, and a long tail tipped with black. She beams, “A snow leopard!”

It’s incredible and perfect, and Maggie’s eyebrows raise at the sight of it. Alex nudges Kara, “Ok, seriously, how does he do it?”

Kara shakes her head, “I have _no_ idea.”

“I always feel bad when the kids ask for something obscure, but _wow_ , he delivers.”

“Be sure to mention that to him tomorrow.”

Alex is still stunned, “I definitely will.”

Lena finishes zipping up Audrey and Maddie and whispers in their ears. They take off running toward Kara, and Alex hops off her lap just in time for her nieces to pummel their mama. Audrey’s a little tan bunny, and Maddie’s a white fluffy lamb.

Kara hugs them tight and squeals, “Oh my god—honey, they’re never taking these off. Not ever.”

Lena walks over and picks up their little bunny and takes her place on Kara’s lap, with both of their girls cuddled close.

Maggie snaps a picture of them like that as Alex sits down next to her, “You think it’s cute now. Wait until that wish comes true and they have to go to school, or—” she reaches out and grabs Gertie around the waist, pulling her onto her lap, “to an awards dinner where they refuse to wear anything remotely appropriate.”

JJ looks up at Alex, suddenly curious, “Who did that, Mama?”

Alex kisses Gertie’s dimple on her cheek, “Your big sister did, when she was three.”

Maggie, Lena and Kara laugh—they remember it well: about five years ago, Eliza and Lena were being presented with recognition awards for their dissertation on alien physiology with an emphasis on children—and, more specifically, their proper treatment and care at the Luthor Family Children’s Hospital. There was a big ceremony downtown.

JJ crawls onto Maggie’s lap, and Lainey looks at her, “Was I there?” It’s her favorite question. Like she’s trying to rebuild the years of her life that she was too young to remember the first time around.

Maggie wraps her arms around JJ and smiles at her daughter, “Yes you were,” and Lainey grins. “You see that picture up there on the mantel?”

Everyone looks, and Lainey runs and reaches for it, coming back to the couch and squeezing between Alex and Maggie, “I was a baby!”

“Yep,” Maggie kisses the top of her head, and then Lainey sees her sister in the photo, and dissolves into a fit of giggles. JJ looks too, and follows suit.

Gertie grabs the picture from her hands, “Hey!” until she sees it too, then she laughs, “Mom! You let me go to the party like that!” she’s a little offended.

Alex shakes her head, “No way, young lady. That’s all you. You _insisted_. You wouldn’t wear anything else for three weeks.”

Maggie’s laughing, remembering: a week before the ceremony, their well-behaved Gertrude had suddenly become very particular about her wardrobe. The only thing she would wear was a purple leotard and rainbow-striped rain boots. She would cry and scream when they tried to get her to wear anything else—the only other acceptable option was nakedness. So for three weeks, Gertie wore the leotard ensemble all day and slept naked—except for her Pull-Ups—every night.

Maggie looks at Gertie now—all her baby rolls gone, her once-chunky arms and legs now stretched out and lanky. But her dark eyes and dark curls are the same, and the dimples when she grins were there from day one. Her heart’s torn between missing that baby girl and the excitement of seeing the person she’s becoming.

She catches Alex’s eyes, “You called your mom in tears the night before, do you remember?”

Alex inhales sharply, “Oh my god, I _did_.”

Kara laughs, “I totally believe that.”

“And Eliza said ‘Let her be naked, if she wants to be naked!’”

Everyone laughs, because Lena’s not far off. As strict as Eliza could be with Alex and Kara, when it came to her grandchildren, she was the biggest pushover. She lived just to see smiles on their little faces as often as she could, and left any parenting to their actual parents. It was both adorable and frustrating.

“Me see! Me see!” and Alex hands the picture over to the little hands on Kara and Lena’s lap.

Audrey points at the photo, “Baby!”

“Baby Lainey,” Lena supplies.

“Baby Lane,” she repeats.

She moves further along the photo, “Baby Gertie.”

“Gigi!” she grins. Then her eyes light up, “Mama! Dat’s you!” she points to Lena and Kara in the photo.

Lena nods, “That’s right. And who’s this?”

She looks down at Jeremiah, “Papa!” then she sees Eliza, “Makack!”

Lena winces, and Kara covers her face with her hand—but everyone else laughs. They have no idea how the twins turned “Grandma” into “Makack,” but it’s certainly stuck. Eliza couldn’t care less. When prompted they can both actually say “grandma,” but as soon as they see Eliza it reverts to their made-up word.

Alex grins, “I hope they call her that forever. It’s the funniest thing.”

Kara glares—she would throw a pillow at her right now if she didn’t have Maddie falling asleep in her lap—and opts for sticking out her tongue. Alex only laughs harder.

Maggie looks to Lainey, “Bug, you better put the movie on or it’s gonna be bed time before we even get it started.”

…

They make it about halfway through the movie, and the kids are all asleep.

Lena’s also asleep with her head resting on Kara’s, half sitting on her lap, and half sort of awkwardly sharing the armchair. Audrey is asleep in her arms, and Maddie is curled against Kara’s chest, sucking her thumb.

On the couch, Alex has her feet up on the coffee table and Gertie fully stretched out, face-down, across her whole body. JJ is asleep with his head on one of Maggie’s thighs and Lainey is asleep on the other.

Kara looks to Alex, “How are we supposed to get up?”

“Very carefully?” Alex guesses.

Kara slowly turns her head to kiss Lena’s cheek, and watches Lena blink awake, “Hey, honey. Let’s get these kids to bed, ok?”

Lena’s still mostly asleep so she just nods. She carefully turns Audrey on her lap, tucking her into her shoulder. She then stands, and reaches her free hand out to pull Kara up from the chair—who’s other arm is holding little Maddie close to her chest.

Alex watches the four of them go upstairs, then turns to Maggie, “Ok, that was way too easy for them.”

“Yeah, sorry, but I can’t carry any of these kids with one arm anymore,” she laughs. She carefully lifts Lainey’s head and lays her back onto the couch, then does the same with JJ as she slips out from between them.

She stands in front of Alex—who is still pinned down by the eight-year-old laying on top of her whole body. She considers the situation, “Well, Ally…I think you’re stuck there for good. Nice knowing ya. It’s been fun,” she grins.

“Don’t you dare,” Alex whines.

Maggie bends down and kisses Gertie’s forehead and then Alex’s lips, gently brushing her hair away from her face, “Let me get the other two to bed, and then I’ll come help you with the leopard.”

“ _Snow_ leopard,” Alex corrects.

“Yes, of course.”

Maggie picks up JJ first, and he half wakes up, but she rubs his back,“It’s alright, buddy. Time for bed. Go back to sleep,” and when he realizes what’s happening, he closes his eyes again.

She returns a few minutes later and repeats a similar process with Lainey.

Before she comes back, Kara and Lena are tiptoeing down the stairs, now changed into pajamas. Lena goes to the kitchen to make coffee, and Kara strolls up to her sister with a smirk, “You look cozy.”

“Please help,” she begs.

Kara reaches down to grab behind both of Alex’s shoulders, “Ready?” Alex puts her feet on the floor and wraps both arms around her daughter, holding her as tight as she dares. She nods.

In one motion, Kara easily pulls Alex to her feet.

Maggie enters a second later, “Well that was a lot more graceful than I could’ve done,” she admits. Alex slips by, pausing a second for Maggie to kiss Gertie and whisper, “Sweet dreams,” then carries their sleeping daughter up the stairs to her bed.

Kara flops onto the now-empty couch, “Christmas is so much more exhausting as an adult.”

Lena appears with two mugs of coffee in one hand, and a third in the other that she hands to Maggie before sitting down next to her wife, “Here, love,” she hands Kara the second mug.

Kara sits up straighter and her eyes light up, “Is this—?”

But Maggie’s already taken a sip, “The famous Irish coffee. You have a gift, Lena.”

Kara kisses her wife and grins, “She’s right you know? You _do_ have a gift…several, in fact…”

Maggie smacks her leg before sitting next to her, “Keep those gifts to yourself, kid.”

But Lena ignores that request, kissing Kara behind her ear as Kara’s cheeks turn pink, “Why should she? You never do,” she laughs.

Alex hits the bottom of the stairs a second later, “Never do what?”

Lena points to the kitchen counter where a fourth mug is steaming. Alex grins and takes it and a tray of cookies to the living room.

As soon as she sits down, Maggie puts a hand on her thigh and kisses her soundly—mostly for the reaction that comes a second later.

“Maggie!” Kara groans.

Maggie grins at Alex, “Never keep my hands to myself.”

“Oh…well…” she pushes Maggie’s hair behind her ear and whispers low, “Never stop.”

Maggie tilts her head, and her dimples flash, “That’s a promise.”

“Are you done torturing me?” Kara whines.

“For now,” Alex concedes. She automatically lifts her arm so Maggie can curl up against her side, before draping it back over her shoulders.

Lena stretches her legs out over the coffee table and yawns, “The twins’ gifts are in your room, right Alex?”

Alex nods, “In our closet.”

None of them have any motivation to move yet, though. They know Santa duties are ahead of them, but they’re also exhausted. They sip their coffees and nibble on the Christmas cookies, enjoying the quiet silence.

Luckily, they’d worked out some Christmas rules early on, because between celebrating Hanukkah _and_ Christmas—not to mention the amount of over-generous adults in their kids’ lives—they needed to bring the gift-giving situation to a halt before their kids were spoiled or they no longer had space to live in their house.

So Santa filled their stockings and brought each kid one, bigger gift. Maggie and Alex’s kids picked out one thing for each of Lena and Kara’s kids, and vis versa. That was pretty much it. Except for Winn—who was allowed to keep giving the pajamas, because they were so perfect and unique, and the kids loved them. Everyone else was told “their presence was presents enough,” and some of them grumbled at first, but they got over it. And the kids never knew the difference.

Lena finishes her coffee and puts the mug on the table, then kisses Kara’s head, “Ready, love?”

Kara groans, but sits up slowly, reluctantly. Lena stands first and pulls her up, leading her toward Alex and Maggie’s room to get their daughter’s toys.

They’ve barely turned the corner, when a little snow leopard with long, dark curls appears at the top of the stairs. Alex and Maggie exchange a look, before Maggie calls quietly, “You’re supposed to be in bed, Gertrude.”

“I know,” she mumbles. But something in her voice is…off.

Alex whispers, “Kara…” to Maggie, who nods. She heads down the hall, as casually as she can, to make sure Lena and Kara don’t bring out “Santa’s” presents, while Alex goes to Gertie, who meets her at the bottom of the stairs.

Alex immediately notices that she’s either been crying, is about to cry, or both. She scoops up their eldest daughter—who is almost getting too big, so she does it every chance she can—and carries her little mini-Maggie to the couch.

“What’s the matter, sweetheart?”

She looks up at her mom with big, watery, brown eyes and a slight frown. “It’s not real,” and Alex is acutely aware that it’s not a question, it’s a statement.

She knows where this is already headed, but she’s going to make sure before she says anything, “What’s not real?”

“Santa Claus.”

She sighs and brushes the curls back from Gertie’s face to buy herself a few moments.

Her first thought is to deny it. _Of course Santa’s real! The presents and the sleigh and the reindeer and the North Pole and the elves… It’s all real!_

Her second thought is, _Maggie should be here._ But her wife is somewhere in the back of their house, and she can’t really go to her.

Her third thought is the one she says aloud, but also very gently, “No, baby. He’s not.”

There’s a combination of satisfaction and loss on little Gertie’s face and Alex tries not to cry when she kisses her forehead.

“Then why do you tell us he is?”

She has to take a deep breath again. She knows Gertie’s almost nine now, and it’s a valid question from a kid her age, but she doesn’t want her to grow up so fast…or at all, really.

_Maggie should really be here for this,_ she thinks for the second time in as many minutes.

And as if she read her mind, she looks up and Maggie’s walking back down the hall, wearing a confused and slightly concerned look on her face. She sits next Alex and Gertie, and frowns, “Everything ok?”

Gertie looks between her mothers nervously, because she was ok asking the question to Alex, but her other mama…even at eight, Gertie knows how much Christmas means to Maggie.

Alex lifts her chin, “It’s okay.”

Maggie’s more concerned now, but she tries to hide it when Gertie looks at her, “Um…why…why do you tell us Santa’s real if he’s not?” she whispers.

And her eyes go wide, and it feels a little like someone knocked the wind out of her—she wasn’t expecting that at all.

Gertie’s eyes well up and Maggie pulls her onto her lap without hesitation and hugs her tight, “Oh no, honey. I’m sorry. Don’t cry. Hey, it’s ok…I’m sorry, jellybean. You just surprised me, is all.”

Gertie’s crying and Maggie is devastated, and she feels Alex rub her back. She wants to cry too—but she doesn’t, she pulls it together, “Hey, listen. It’s a very important question. I’m glad you asked me. Ok?”

Her face in Maggie’s neck, Gertie barely nods—but at least she’s stopped crying.

She thought she’d be prepared for the day her kids asked about Santa, but she also never expected that day to be today. She tries to gather her thoughts as her daughter’s breathing evens out on her chest.

She shares a look with Alex—neither of them sure what to say—but Gertie doesn’t unwrap her arms from Maggie’s neck. She starts rubbing her back, “I don’t know why we tell you about Santa, baby. We just do. It’s part of the holiday. Santa brings presents.”

“So none of it’s real?”

“Well…” Maggie starts. But Alex jumps in then.

She puts a hand on Gertie’s chin so she looks at her, “Of course it’s real, bean. Just…not the way you’re thinking of it.”

Gertie wipes her eyes, “That doesn’t make any sense.”

Maggie tries not to laugh, but Alex keeps going, “Well…uh, Santa Claus—as a person, he’s…not real.” She says carefully, “But he’s more than just one person. He’s…all the good things that happen around Christmas. Does that make sense?”

Gertie gives her a blank stare, “Not really.”

Maggie tries, “Well, you know how if you’re not good, Santa doesn’t bring you presents?”

“Yeah.”

“Ok. So the real magic of Christmas—and of Santa Claus—is that for a while, almost everyone, even the adults, tries very hard to be good.”

She tilts her head, “That’s it?”

Now Maggie does laugh, “Well, it’s more than that, but it’s hard to explain. But you’ll know it when you see it. And you feel it. Everyone believes a little more. They believe in Santa, but also in magic, and happiness, and goodness.”

Gertie considers the information for a moment, “Can you give me an example?”

Maggie sighs, “She may have my looks, but that is all you, Al.”

Alex rolls her eyes, “Thanks,” and Maggie winks. “I can’t really give you a good example, bean. You’ll have to look for it tomorrow. Watch your sister’s face when she wakes you up in the morning, or Maddie and Audrey’s faces when they see that Santa ate the cookies they left out. Or your brother when he sees what Santa brought him. You’ll see it. You’ll feel it.”

Gertie nods like she’s taken that direction as her personal mission.

“The best part about finding out about Santa, is that you get to become Santa…for others. For your siblings, and your cousins,” Maggie adds.

Gertie knows what she doesn’t say, “So I can’t tell Lainey?”

Alex sees the disappointment on her face. They’re close—almost as close as Alex and Kara—and she tells her everything. “This is one thing you should try not to tell her, ok?”

She sighs, “Ok.”

Maggie kisses her cheek, and Alex does too, “Time for bed now, jellybean.”

She looks up at Maggie, “Will you carry me, Mommy?” and her big eyes are still watery from crying, and _that damn pout_ , Maggie thinks. She shoots a glance at Alex, who’s biting back a grin, because she knows what Maggie’s thinking about that pouty face.

But there’s nothing Maggie wouldn’t do for that face—for any of her kids, or Alex, or the Super Family—so she smiles, “Of course, baby.”

She carries Gertie upstairs, and Alex watches them leave with a sad smile on her face.

Not five seconds later, Kara and Lena peer around the corner, casually strolling into the room, each with a tricycle in their hand.

Alex laughs, “Subtle, guys.”

“We waited as long as we could!”

Alex suddenly realizes they’d been in her room the entire time, “Uh…what—what were you doing in there this whole time, anyway?”

Kara blushes and ducks past her sister to put the two tricycles under the tree, and Lena shrugs with a grin, “Just…waiting.”

Alex is torn between wanting to know more and not wanting to know anything else. So she glares.

Lena never wavers—Alex’s glare does nothing to intimidate her, but she does it anyway. She feels it’s her duty as the big sister. Kara folds easily. She kisses Alex on the cheek and takes Lena’s hand, tugging her up the stairs and far away from that glare, “Goodnight, Alex!”

…

Maggie comes down the stairs a few minutes later to find Alex, sitting on the floor of the living room, tying a large tag on an even larger box. She slips behind her, wrapping her arms around Alex’s stomach and resting her cheek on Alex’s back, closing her eyes.

Alex reaches a hand back and massages Maggie’s scalp, “Tired, babe?”

She hums in agreement, “Your kids ask too many questions.”

“Oh, so suddenly they’re _my_ kids?” Alex chuckles.

She can feel Maggie’s grin on the back of her shoulder, “Mmhmm. Definitely yours.”

“Okay…” she rolls her eyes.

She finishes tying the tag, and pushes the heavy box a little further under the tree, and Maggie suddenly starts laughing.

“What’s so funny?”

Maggie stands and pulls Alex to her feet, still grinning. She points under the tree, “You really just put a box of books under that tree for a five-year-old, and then tried to say these kids aren’t yours?”

Alex puts her forehead on Maggie’s shoulder, laughing too, “Yeah, I guess I did.”

She lifts Alex’s head from her shoulder and kisses her slow, sweet, “Come on, maybe we can get like…two hours of sleep this year.”

“Oh, now that is all _your_ kids.”

She laughs, “So now they’re mine?”

Alex grins, “You can blame me for the books, but 5AM wake-ups on Christmas morning is entirely your doing.”

Maggie shrugs, then looks into Alex’s eyes, and raises an eyebrow, “Hey, do you remember our first Christmas? I think we were up at 5AM that day too…”

Even all these years later, Alex blushes, “Well I did get you a pretty great gift that year.”

Maggie slowly rakes her eyes up and down Alex’s body, remembering, “You did. I couldn’t wait to unwrap it…”

Alex takes her hand and starts backing down the hall toward their bedroom, pulling Maggie along, “You know…I think I might have a similar gift for you this year…and I might even let you open it early…”

Maggie bites her bottom lip, “You know, I have been really, _really_ good this year…”

…

It’s still dark out when their door creaks open, and a quiet pitter-patter of little feet and giggles makes it’s way through their room.

Alex is curled up into Maggie’s side, with an arm around her waist, and then suddenly there’s a six-year-old burrowing in between, loudly whispering, “Merry Christmassss!”

She gently squeezes Maggie’s side in a small attempt to wake her up, before pulling her daughter close, “Merry Christmas, Elena.”

Lainey’s eyes are glittering and she’s grinning from ear to ear, “Can we open presents now?”

Alex kisses her forehead, “You know the rules, bug.”

She responds with a dramatic sigh, then a mischievous grin, “So I just have to wake up Mommy and Auntie Kara and Auntie Lena and the babies!”

She rolls toward Maggie in an instant, but Alex is faster. She sits up and grabs her around the middle and pulls her back onto her lap, “Oh no you don’t, little miss. You’re supposed to _wait_ for them to wake up. Not wake them all up.”

“But _mama_ …” she whines.

Lainey’s previous sentence suddenly processes, “Wait—did you wake up your brother and sister?” Lainey tries—and fails—to look innocent.

But then Maggie stirs and blinks awake, and Lainey looks up at Alex with a dimpled smirk—looking so much like Maggie just now, with that cheeky grin, taking Maggie’s opened eyes as her own personal victory.

“Merry Christmas, bug,” she says, yawning.

Lainey wiggles in Alex’s lap, “Merry Christmas, Mommy!”

“Come here,” Maggie sits up and Lainey leaps into her arms. She hugs her tight and kisses her, then whispers something in her ear. Lainey looks at her with wide eyes—then back at Alex—then back to Maggie who just nods and winks.   
She clambers off the bed and takes off down the hall at a sprint.

“You did _not_ just tell her to wake up Kara!”

Maggie lays back down in Alex’s lap, grinning, “Of course I did.”

“Maggie!”

“Hey! The number of times Kara has woken us up or…” she lowers her voice “…interrupted us… She deserves it. Plus, it’s Christmas! No one gets to sleep in on Christmas.”

Alex shakes her head, and Maggie sits up. She holds Alex’s face gently, whispering, “Ally…”

With one word she has Alex’s full attention, and the sudden intimacy makes her stomach flip. She puts her hands on top of Maggie’s, “Merry Christmas, Mags,” she breathes.

Maggie flashes her dimples and Alex melts. “Merry Christmas,” she whispers, before pulling Alex into a long kiss.

But before they even think to pull apart, there’s giggling and more than one person climbing on top of their bed—then more.

“Groooossss,” is the first voice they hear.

They laugh and separate, and without even looking, Maggie grabs a pillow and throws it right at that voice, “Impeccable timing as always, Little Danvers.”

Kara ducks the pillow and plops her twins on the bed—one on Maggie and one on Alex—grinning, “Not sorry!” she singsongs,  “This one’s on you, sis,” then she picks up Lainey next and tosses her gently on the bed too.

Gertie is also at the foot of the bed, and Lena is standing behind them with JJ in her arms—the little bear still mostly asleep on her chest.

Alex pulls her niece onto her lap with a smirk, “She’s got a point, Mags,” then tickles her, “You wanna open presents, Miss Maddie?”

“Presents!” she giggles.

Maggie grabs Audrey and raises her up over her head, “How about you? Presents?”

“Santa!”

Maggie puts her down, laughing, “Close enough.”

Lainey and Gertie start jumping on the bed, chanting, “Pres-ents! Pres-ents!” and the twins join in as best they can.

Alex and Maggie get out of bed, and regard the chaos with a look of amusement. Alex goes to Kara and hugs her tight, “Merry Christmas, little sis.”

Kara squeezes her tighter, “Merry Christmas, Alex.”

Maggie pulls on Alex’s old Stanford sweatshirt over her t-shirt, then claps her hands together, “Alright, who thinks Santa came?”

“I do!” JJ hops out of Lena’s arms and runs toward the door with Lainey, the twins stumbling right behind. Gertie gives Maggie a look from where she’s sitting on the bed, but she’s still grinning. Maggie winks at her.

“You know the rules—stockings first. Help your cousins out so they don’t pull the stockings down on their heads, ok?” Maggie gets four frantic nods in return, “Then you need to find a seat until all the grown ups get their coffee. You got it?”

“Got it!” Gertie shouts. Maggie looks to Alex, who just shrugs.

“Coffee takes _foreverrrr_ ,” JJ groans.

Maggie crosses her arms, “Well if Mommy doesn’t get coffee, then no one gets presents.”

“Okay, okay, okay!”

She laughs, “Ok.” She pauses a little, seeing how far she can push their patience, “Go get ‘em, kiddos.”

All five kids tear down the hall loudly, sprinting toward the living room.

…

Alex goes about making coffee, and within minutes, all five kids are sitting in small piles of goodies. There’s a flurry of wrapping paper flying through the air, along with shrieks and giggles and more than one Nerf bullet whizzing by. It’s all small stuff: a lot of candy, books, movies, socks and underwear, bubbles for the twins, Nerf guns for the older kids, a few card games—but they’re excited nonetheless.

Kara joins Alex in the kitchen to grab some coffee for herself and Lena. She leans against the counter and puts her head on her sister’s shoulder, “You know…every year I think it can’t get better, and somehow…it does.”

Alex wraps an arm around her little sister’s waist and hugs her tight, “We did pretty good, didn’t we?”

They look out into the living room where JJ’s got Audrey on his lap, reading her a book she brought over from her stocking. Gertie and Lainey are pooling together and then re-dividing their candy—Gertie grabbing all the Reese’s cups, and giving over her Hershey Kisses in a trade. Maddie brought over a doll for Maggie to open, and now her and Lena are laughing to the point of tears, in the middle of a weird Barbie tug-of-war because “Who packages kids toys like this? This is impossible!”

Barbie finally breaks free causing Lena and Maggie to lose their balance and nearly fall off the opposite ends of the couch. Kara and Alex crack up.

Kara puts a hand on her forehead, still giggling, “That was graceful.”

Alex laughs harder, “I wish I had a camera.”

Lena and Maggie look up at their wives, hoping neither saw that. But Kara and Alex are grinning and shaking their heads, making Lena and Maggie laugh harder.

Both sisters return to their wives’ sides with coffee, and suddenly the kids get quiet—staring up at their parents, waiting for permission to get whatever is under the tree waiting for them.

Alex grins, “Go ahead,” and the kids take off toward the tree.

“No, no!” Kara shouts, and both her and Lena use their free hand to grab the twin closest to them, hanging onto the smallest piece of their jammies and stopping them in their tracks.

“Mama!!” they cry at once. Lena puts her coffee down on the table, and Alex takes Kara’s, so they can put two hands on each toddler, scooping them up into their laps—despite their loud, squirming protests.

“Hey, _hey_ …it’s ok.” Lena looks at both of them, trying to calm them before they resort to actual crying, “You’re going to get your presents, I promise. But they’re too heavy. Let the big kids get them for you.”

“My presents!” Audrey shouts.

Kara frowns at her, “Hey, you be nice.” Audrey makes a pouty face that is so Kara, and Alex has to hide her face in Maggie’s shoulder to keep from laughing.

Lainey and Gertie come over a second later pushing two red, Radio Flyer tricycles with big, gold bows on them, “Audrey! Maddie! Look what Santa brought you!”

The twins turn at Lainey’s voice and their eyes go wide, Maddie yells, “Red bike!” and both twins wiggle out of Kara and Lena’s grasp and run to their new bikes.

Lena smiles at her nieces, “Thank you girls.”

Lainey shrugs and runs back to the tree to seek out her own present, but Gertie waits a little longer, and walks up to Maggie and Alex slowly, “Like that?” she says quietly.

Alex and Maggie smile back at her, “Exactly like that,” Alex says, and Gertie nods and follows after her sister.

Maggie’s eyes are brimming with tears, and Alex grabs her hand and squeezes it tight, “Just another first, babe,” she whispers.

And with that—her tears fall. She nudges Alex next to her, “Thanks a lot, Danvers. I was trying to hold it together.”

Alex puts a hand on her cheek and wipes Maggie’s tears gently, “A lifetime of firsts,” she promises again. She kisses her, “I love you.”

Maggie sighs, leaning into Alex’s chest, “I love you too.”

“Mom!” snaps them out of their little moment, and they look up and see JJ struggling with a large, very heavy box, “A little help?” he grunts.

Lainey and Gertie sigh, leaving their own boxes—once again—and all three of them push the box across the carpeting, sliding it toward where he was sitting on the floor.

“You must’ve been _really_ bad,” his sister laughs, “Santa brought you a lot of coal!”

“Elena Elizabeth!” Maggie scolds, but Lainey grins that impish grin with those dimples, and Maggie simply shakes her head.

Lainey runs back to get a similarly large box, although it’s light enough that she can manage it by herself. Gertie takes a seat on the floor with a smaller box in her lap.

The three of them tear into the wrapping paper. This time, Lainey’s first, “Oh my gosh, Mommy! Mama! I got a unicycle!” she shouts.

Kara and Lena exchange a look of surprise and confusion, then look to Alex and Maggie, who shrug with a look that says, _It’s what she wanted._

There had been an assembly at the kids’ school earlier in the year, before they went home for the summer. There were acrobats and people on stilts and unicycles and fire-breathing—nearly a full circus, but without animals—and Lainey had been talking about the stilts and unicycles for the past six months, nonstop. Alex and Maggie eventually gave in. It was the only thing she’d asked Santa for.

Lainey is already doing her best work destroying the box to get to the unicycle, when JJ’s eyes go wide and he holds a book up to Alex and Maggie, “Mom! Mama! These are…these” he’s so excited, he’s stuttering and mildly hyperventilating, “this—this is an entire box of alien books! It’s—it’s got everything! There’s new books about Krypton, but also—” he looks into the box again, “books on Starhaven and Maaldoria and Sedenach, and—and Thanagar. Mama! Mommy! There’s _everything!”_

His sisters’ heads whip up in the middle his rant, with Gertie stopping before she even finishes unwrapping her gift, “Sedenach?”

Lainey’s interested too, “Maaldoria? Can I see that?!” JJ digs in the box and hands over two books as he pulls another out to check the spine, “Earth-One? Does that mean…” he pulls out another book, “Earth-Two!” He starts muttering to himself, now nearly upside-down, head-first in the box of books, “How many other Earths…”

Maggie nudges Alex next to her, and whispers low enough that the kids won’t hear, “Nerds,” she teases, but she kisses Alex’s cheek and grins. They went through a lot of trouble to get those books.

Kara and Alex, and occasionally Maggie—though she refused to go to space, only visiting other Earths, which Kara and Alex never once mentioned was still space—used the transmatter portal in every spare moment they had, collecting novels and reference texts from every resource they could think of.

Barry, Cisco, Felicity, Winn and Sara helped them out too. They pooled together their efforts and came up with about 35 books for JJ. Meanwhile, another hundred plus are sitting in the DEO right now. They’re saving them for when he finishes these and wants more—and also so Winn and Alex can read and digitally catalog them first.

“Did you even open your present, jellybean?” Alex asks. Because Gertie is already fully immersed in a book, and if left to her own devices, she’d forget everything else going on until she reached the back cover.

Her head snaps up and she looks around for a second, eyes wide, remembering where she is, “Oh! Oops,” she giggles.

“Yeah…definitely yours,” Maggie teases.

Lainey finally opens her box and drags her unicycle down toward the hallway, where she can practice and hold on to the walls for support. The twins follow—rarely out of her shadow—dragging their new tricycles toward the hardwood floor of the kitchen.

Kara and Lena stand to help their girls, Maggie calling behind them, “Push the table into the corner, they’ll have more room.”

Kara raises her eyebrows at that, “What?” Maggie grins. Kara shakes her head, laughing.

Gertie gasps slightly, and Maggie turns her attention back to her daughter. She picks up the camera in the box and turns it over in her hands, slowly, inspecting every part of it.

“This is just like Uncle Jimmy’s,” she whispers.

Maggie grins, “That’s the one that was on your list to Santa, wasn’t it?”

Gertie nods emphatically, holding the camera up to her eye and pretending to take pictures with it—but she puts it down a second later with a frown.  
“What is it, bean?”

She stands slowly and climbs onto Alex’s lap, facing Maggie too, “But he never got it. Because…he’s…he’s not…” she can’t bring herself to finish the sentence and Alex hugs her tight and kisses the top of her head.

Maggie puts a hand on her cheek, “He’s as real as you want him to be, sweetie. You’re allowed to believe in him as much as you want. As long as you want. No one can take that away from you.”

Gertie nods and looks down at the camera again, a little sad, and Alex tickles her lightly, until her dimples show. She puts a hand under her chin, “Go on and test it out. Then you can show all your pictures to Uncle Jimmy when he comes over for dinner later.”

That makes her eyes light up. She hops off Alex’s lap and runs over to show her camera to her sister.

Maggie’s eyes are tearing up and she looks worried again. Alex puts a hand on her head, rubbing a thumb over the creases on her forehead until she relaxes—she kind of knows the answer to the question she’s about to ask, “What’s the matter, babe?”

“I hope it’s not ruined for her,” she whispers.

Alex wraps both arms around Maggie tight and pulls her close to her side, kissing her temple, “Hey, it’s not ruined. It can never be—look at her, Mags.”

Maggie takes a deep breath, and slowly turns toward the room in front of her.

The twins are chasing each other in circles around the kitchen island on their new bike. Kara and Lena are leaning against the table they’ve pushed into the corner. JJ is sitting on top of it, between them, with a book open on his lap—grinning, and pointing, and rambling nonstop.

And little Gertie is perched on the bottom of the staircase, camera in hand, one eye shut tight—she still hasn’t mastered taking pictures with both eyes open, but James is working on it—and snapping away at Lainey who’s already making it down the hall on her unicycle without holding on to the wall—well, mostly.

She gets to the end and loses her balance right in front of Gertie, who drops the camera away from her face and rushes to her sister—even though Lainey’s already giggling.

“Did you get a picture of that? Can I see it?” she laughs. Gertie scrolls through the photos on her camera and must find at least one, because both girls dissolve into laughter a second later.

“Nothing about Christmas is ruined, Maggie. It’s perfect. You’re perfect. It’s always going to be perfect.”

“Promise?”

Alex holds Maggie’s face in her hands and kisses her, “I promise you, that even when we’re old and our kids are grown and moved out and Gertie is President and Lainey has run off with the circus and JJ has read every book on this planet—and on every other planet he discovers—that we will still have Christmas, and it will still be perfect.”

Maggie rolls her eyes, laughing and looks up at her, “President, huh? Setting that bar a little high there?”

Alex grins, “She can be whatever she wants. But we both know, if one of them was going to become President…”

“Oh yeah, it’s that one,” Maggie agrees.

That one runs up to them a second later, “Mommy, I’m hungry.”

“I can fix that,” Maggie smirks. She peels herself away from Alex and stands, and Gertie puts her hands on Maggie’s shoulders and jumps up. She catches her effortlessly, and piggybacks her into the kitchen.

“Cinnamon rolls?” Gertie grins.

“Of course!”

Gertie gasps, “Can we put them in the waffle maker like last year?”

“Of course!”

…

After cinnamon roll waffles and waking up at five in the morning, by about eight, they’re all tired again. The kids turn on one of the movies they got from Santa, and everyone snuggles up in the living room with coffee and hot cocoa and blankets.

…

Later that afternoon, about an hour before everyone should be arriving, Gertie, Lainey and JJ are setting the table while Maggie is finishing up some cooking. Lena is rocking Audrey, trying to get her to take a nap, and Kara is looking around for Alex, who was supposed to be putting Maddie down for a nap too.

She finds Alex in her room, in the reading chair by the window. Maddie is laying on her chest, tucked up under her chin, sucking her thumb and fast asleep.

Alex’s eyes are closed too, but she opens them when Kara’s about halfway across the room.

“Hey, sis.”

Alex blinks awake and smiles at her sister, “Hey.”

“I was wondering where you ran off too. I thought you were going to put her down for a nap.”

Alex looks down at her sleeping niece and kisses her head of golden curls, “I was.”

Kara chuckles and sits in the chair opposite her, “How’d that work out for you?”

“Pretty well, actually. I got a nap too.”

Kara closes her eyes for a second now, “That sounds amazing. Kids are exhausting—a little heads up on that would’ve been nice.”

“Like you would’ve listened anyway,” Alex laughs.

Kara grins, “Yeah…probably not.”

“Is anyone here yet?”

“Nope. You can nap a little longer.”

“I miss my kids being this little and snuggly,” and Kara tilts her head, curious, “I love them now too—of course—I just…I don’t know. I miss baby snuggles,” Alex shrugs.

“You could have more babies…” Kara smirks.

“No, no. No more babies,” Alex laughs, “We are definitely done there.”

Kara stands and kisses her daughter’s cheek and the top of Alex’s head, “Well…” she turns and walks toward the door, but stops short and looks back over her shoulder, “maybe Lena and I will help you out with that…” she winks.

And Alex’s eyes go wide and her jaw drops, but she can’t shout or get up because of the sleeping toddler on her chest, so she just…gapes. Kara giggles and shrugs and slips out the door, closing it behind her with a teasing whisper, “Merry Christmas, Alex.”


	12. Your Heart Was Beating Too Fast

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yeah…I know, I know. I said I was done. Turns out I wasn’t. This popped in my head, and spilled onto a page very quickly, and well…here ya go. A little prequel to the other two Supercorp/Sanvers/Kiddos fics. 
> 
> And now I’m done. For real. 
> 
> …I’m pretty sure…
> 
> Feat. Supercorp and Sanvers and Danvers Sisters and babies.

Alex and Maggie barely push the door open, when Kara cries, “Alex! In here. _Please_ …please help me.”

There is a lot of crying coming from Kara and Lena’s bedroom, and not all of it sounds like it’s from their newborn baby girls.

Alex kisses Maggie on the cheek, leaving her to occupy their three kids in the living room and hurries down the hall toward all the noise.

Her jaw drops in the doorway to Kara and Lena’s bedroom.

Toys and blankets and diapers and bottles are everywhere. Kara is cradling two tiny, pink bundles—one in each arm—bouncing and rocking and trying everything she can to make them stop crying, which they don’t seem to be inclined to do, as her own tears stream down her cheeks.

Alex wants to laugh and cry at the same time.

“Lena had a meeting, she had to go…she…and I…I  _can’t_. Alex, they won’t stop.”

“Oh, Kara…”

“Alex, _please_ ,” she pleads.

Alex ignores the screaming babies for just a second, choosing to wrap her baby sister up in a hug, and wipe a few of her tears first, “It’s gonna be fine. I promise.”

“I can’t—Alex, I can’t…”

Alex rubs her back, “You _can_. You can do this.”

Kara shakes her head and Alex kisses her cheek, then takes one baby—she’s not even sure which one, they look identical—out of Kara’s arms gently.

She lets the blanket she was wrapped in fall to the ground and holds her niece close against her chest, one hand under her tiny bottom, and one holding her head, her face turned so her little ear is right over Alex’s heart.

Madeleine stops crying almost instantly. Kara deflates, “ _How?_ ”

“Shh…” Alex rocks slightly, “Just breathe, Kara. Try to relax.”

Kara tries, she takes a deep breath. She pulls little Audrey close to her chest and sways gently, trying to mimic Alex. But her daughter still screams, and Kara’s tears start again too, “Alex, she won’t—I can’t make her stop.”

Alex puts the now-calmer Maddie down in the bassinet next to Lena and Kara’s bed. She goes to her sister and puts a hand on Kara’s back and one on her niece’s, hoping to calm either one even a fraction, but Kara shrugs her off and carefully hands Audrey off to her sister, “Please, Alex? I’m sorry, it…it hurts. I—I just…just make her ok. Make her stop crying. _Please_.”

Alex takes the baby, but is more concerned for her sister. Except Kara walks off before she can stop her.

Maggie hears a door slam down the hall, and kisses five-year-old Gertie on the head, “Keep an eye your brother and sister for me, ok? Stay here.” Gertie nods, while three-year-old Lainey and two-year-old JJ play quietly with the stuffed animals they brought with them.

She finds Kara in the nursery, sitting on the floor opposite the babies’ crib, her head in her hands, crying.

She sits silently next to her and takes her hand in her own. Kara leans onto her shoulder and Maggie lets her cry.

“Maggie…I can’t. I can’t do this.”

“Yes, you can,” she says gently, but firm.

“No, I _can’t_. And every time they cry, it…it just breaks my heart. And I can’t make them stop…and that only makes worse.”

Maggie’s heart breaks for her little sister, “You’re doing fine, Kara. And that feeling…that doesn’t go away, anyway. It’ll hurt every time they cry. So don’t worry about that.”

Kara barely hears her, “Lena is _so good_ at it, you know? One or both, and she’s…flawless. And I can usually handle one, but there’s two of them. And if they’re happy, it’s fine, but then they cry at the same time, so you’re outnumbered. And…and Alex? She just comes in, and they’re better. They’re happy. Instantly. She makes it look _so_ easy…”

Maggie smirks, “Well that’s unfair. Alex makes everything look easy. She sucks.”

Kara was about to say something, but the blunt statement stops her mid-thought, and she just laughs. Maggie’s takes pride in that small victory.

“Hey…do you remember when Gertie was born?” Kara nods, “Do you remember what you said?”

“She looked like an alien?”

Maggie chuckles, “Yes, that—thanks, by the way—but also, what else? Do you remember? I was holding her and she was screaming and Alex wasn’t around and I was freaking out.”

She takes a deep breath and closes her eyes, she thinks back, she remembers, “Your heart was beating too fast. Way too fast. You were scared.”

“I was terrified,” Maggie corrects. “I was terrified, so she was terrified, and it didn’t help either of us.”

Kara shakes her head, “I don’t…I—I can’t…”

“Stop. You _can_. You are. You’re doing great, Kara.”

Kara doesn’t believe her, “Lena’s better…”

Maggie squeezes her hand, “Hey, Lena and Alex…they’re…calm under pressure. Always. But you and me? At work? Sure, we can be. But in life? We’re…” she laughs a little, “we’re slightly less calm.”

Kara sighs, and Maggie grins, “We are who we are, Little Danvers. It might take time, but you’ll be fine. More than fine. You’re going to be incredible. You’re going to be _super_.”

Kara rolls her eyes, and she can’t help but laugh—which is exactly the reaction Maggie had hoped for.

Then Lainey runs in, followed by Gertie, who’s trying to stop her, “Lainey, no!” When they see Kara and Maggie on the floor, they freeze.

Lainey walks up slowly, curiously, to Kara and holds up her stuffed hippo and boops Kara’s nose with it, “Muah! No cry. All better!”

Maggie’s heart nearly bursts out of her chest. Kara grins and hugs Lainey tight.

“I’m sorry, Mommy. I tried to stop her,” Gertie whispers.

“It’s ok,” she holds out her hand, “Come here, jellybean.”

Gertie walks to Maggie and sits down on her lap, looking at Kara, “Auntie Kara, are you mad?”

Kara shakes her head, “No, no. I’m not mad, G. I’m…I was sad. But not about you. Never about you.”

Gertie looks to Maggie, unsure, “You’re fine, baby. Auntie Kara is just having a bad day. You think we can cheer her up?”

“Ice cream!” Lainey shouts.

Kara and Maggie laugh. “Well she certainly gets you,” Maggie grins.

Both women stand and lead the kids toward the living room. When they turn the corner, the girls take off toward the toys, and Kara doesn’t make it three steps before Alex has her in a bear hug.

“I’m so sorry, Kara. I didn’t mean…I wasn’t trying to…” she sighs, “I—I just wanted to help.”

Kara hugs her tighter, “You did, Alex. Thank you for rescuing me. I needed you. Your nieces needed you. You were perfect.”

They pull apart and Alex frowns, “I wasn’t trying to be perfect…”

“I know,” Kara smiles, “You never are. Which only makes it _more_ perfect. And kind of annoying,” she laughs.

Alex swats her arm, “Hey!”

“I love you.”

“I love you too.”

Crying starts again from the back bedroom and Kara sighs. Alex squeezes her arm, “Breathe. You got this.”

…

Lena comes home an hour later, and opens the door to find five extra people there—although she’s long since been surprised to see any of the Super Fam in her apartment unannounced.

Maggie is in the kitchen making a salad, with Gertie sitting on the counter, stealing tomato and cucumber pieces from the bowl. Alex is on the floor of the living room, reading JJ and Lainey a story. She doesn’t see her wife or babies anywhere.

Alex looks up from the floor and gives her a small wave, “Hey.”

“Hi…?”

“We uh…came by for dinner,” she lies with a wink, and answers the question on Lena’s face, “She’s in the nursery.”

Lena grins and tries not to run down the hall to her new little family. She opens the door to the nursery slowly, quietly.

In the chair near the window, Kara has Audrey asleep, cradled in the crook of her arm, with Maddie propped up on her knees, eyes wide open, looking up at her. 

She’s talking to her in the softest voice, gently tracing her finger along her cheek, and under her chin, coaxing out her newborn smiles—which make Kara’s whole face light up.

It takes Lena’s breath away—and it takes a few seconds for her to actually comprehend Kara’s whispers, “…mama’s home now, and that’s my favorite. When we’re all together. Your mama is the smartest, prettiest women in the whole galaxy. And I’ve been to fourteen planets, so I know these things. But your mama, she knows a lot more things. She’s so, so smart. But you know. You’ll see. She’ll teach you everything you could ever want to learn. And she loves you so, so much.”

“And she loves _you_ so, so much,” Lena whispers, now standing over Kara’s shoulder. She kisses her wife and lifts her chin, “How did it go, love?”

Kara exhales, “Uh…mostly terrible.”

Lena frowns and kisses her forehead, “I’m sorry. I should’ve stayed.”

“No, it’s ok. But I’m glad you’re back,” she turns back to the babies with a grin, “We figured it out,” and her voice changes again, “Didn’t we, Miss Maddie? Did you say hi to your mama? You should give her a hug. I know she missed you.”

Lena picks up her baby girl, kissing her cheek and holding her to her chest, “I missed you very much, my Madeleine.” Kara takes her free hand in her own, “I missed you all very much.”

“We missed you too.”

 


	13. A Way Out

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So I’ve never written while the regular season aired. 
> 
> I’ve…well, I’ve never written anything until like five months ago. 
> 
> So I don’t know if I’ll keep writing when Supergirl comes back. (Short answer: probably, I just don’t know what/when/how.)
> 
> And despite my best intentions, I’ve heard some spoilers, and I hate them. So I wanted to give myself somewhere that Maggie & Alex are forever.
> 
> This hurt a lot to even write, but it was kind of a coping mechanism? And so…it kind of helped me too.
> 
> So that’s your warning. It’s sad, but hopeful. Read if you want.
> 
> See ya in Season 3…wherever it may take us. <3

She flies over the city faster than she ever has.

Angrier than she’s ever been.

Sadder than she’s ever been.

…and she’s been sad a lot in her lifetime.

But she didn’t know what else to do.

They always looked just as in love as they had been since they started dating.   
So this? This blindsided her.

She never—not once—ever imagined she’d see Maggie Sawyer, crying in her kitchen, hugging her goodbye.

Not on purpose.

Not like this.

She felt bad for leaving her, but she couldn’t do it. As soon as Maggie’s words left her mouth, Kara pushed her away and left her standing there.

She had to leave her there.

First, it was her parents.

Then her planet.

Then Jeremiah.

Then Cat Grant.

Then Mon-El.

Now, her sister.

Because Maggie was her _sister_ —she was supposed to be her sister. But this… _no_. She couldn’t stay.

She’s angry, and she’s sobbing, but she keeps flying because it’s the only place it feels safe, now.

Not at Alex’s anymore, not without Maggie. She doesn’t care that she said it was “best for both of them,” and “it’s the right thing to do,” and “we will always love each other.”

She doesn’t care.

Not at her own place, not with whatever that version of Maggie was, there. She doesn’t care that she said “I’ll always be here for you,” and “I’m only a phone call away,” and “I will always love you, kid.”

She doesn’t care.

Thoughts and memories from the last year play through her head: Alex’s coming out, Alex’s heartbreak over Maggie not wanting her, but mostly…Alex happy. Both of them so utterly and unbelievably happy. Kara and Maggie becoming friends, becoming sisters. Maggie finally realizing she has a family—a whole family who loves her unconditionally. Alex and Maggie being engaged. Moving in together. Being perfect together.

That happiness makes her angrier now. She pushes herself harder, faster—the tears and the anger keeps building.

Then suddenly, she’s on the opposite side of the city.

She slows down.

She wasn’t sure if she blinked, or she was crying too hard, but something…feels different.

She hovers over National City and looks around, but she can’t tell what’s changed.

She can’t go home and she can’t go to Alex’s, so she goes to the one place where she can stop and think, and it won’t totally crush her that Maggie won’t be there. She goes to the DEO.

Even before she lands on the balcony, she notices the hole in it. The hole that they _definitely_ fixed after the Daxamite invasion, but now…it’s back.

She lands on the balcony and Alex walks up behind her a second later, and her voice is quiet. Serious. “There was a moment this year, when I felt completely broken…”

Kara looks at her sister, but she can’t bring herself to interrupt. She knows this speech. This whole moment is engrained in her mind forever. It was her lowest point, and Alex…Alex was always there for her.

But that was months ago.

Or…well… _crazier things have happened_ , she thinks.

She tests the situation. She says the same thing she said then, “No, go be with your girlfriend, I need to know you two are happy.”

Alex doesn’t flinch. She doesn’t say “you know we broke up,” she doesn’t say anything. So Kara tries to remember everything she told Alex that night, and she tries to say it exactly how she did then.

She ends it like she ended it last time, and she means it just like she meant it last time, but it breaks her heart in a way it didn’t before, “…never let her go.”

Alex nods. She takes that seriously—so seriously, Kara knows. Because she knows what happens after she left, last time.

But this time…this time she waits. She doesn’t take off. She can’t bring herself to shut out her sister like she did before. She wants more than anything to hug Alex, but she knows she shouldn’t. She should do exactly what she did, then.

She sees Maggie hovering at the bottom of the stairs, and she hesitates. Part of her brain hates the sight of her, is still so mad at her, at both of them, really—and part of her brain wants to cry and run into her arms and hug her tight. She wants her back, just like this. Just how she is right now.

Because if this really is what she thinks it is…

She’s been friends with Barry Allen long enough to know this could be a serious problem.

But she can’t do it. She can’t leave her sisters here knowing how this turns out six months from now.

And she also doesn’t know how to get back to where she was.

So she does what she wants—what she _needs_ —more than anything, right now.

She looks at Alex, and then into the DEO, “Maggie?”

Maggie startles slightly, because she didn’t think Kara had noticed she was there, but of course she did. She comes out to the balcony and stands between both of the Danvers girls.

Kara doesn’t say anything. She just hugs her tight—as tight as she can without breaking anything—then she reaches out a hand and pulls Alex into the hug too.

And with the three of them standing here again, hugging, she cries. She sobs. She breaks down to the point that she’s not even sure how she’s standing anymore. She had gotten so close, _so close_ , to losing this and now…here it is. 

Right in her arms.

She doesn’t know if it will fix things.

She doesn’t know if she’ll end up leaving Maggie standing in her apartment six months from now.

But she doesn’t worry about that, now.

That will come later, if at all.

Maybe not at all.

Hopefully, not at all.

…


	14. This...is...SANVERS!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sanvers Week prompt: High School/College AU
> 
> I wasn’t really planning on writing anything this week because I didn’t think I’d have time. But I went to college, so this one was easier to write. And yes, I’ve definitely read a lot of versions of “Alex is drunk at a party, and Maggie picks her up,” but like…I think that’s happened to all of us in college, right? Right.

Alex sits on the side of the empty soccer pitch, cleats in her hands, and nerves in her stomach.

She played as a kid, and half-heartedly through middle school, but she was never really great at the sport.

But her coursework in the fall of her freshman year was stupidly easy, and they were all mandatory classes that she couldn’t test out of, so she needed something to do. 

Kara told her that the library was never going to make her any friends, because she wasn’t allowed to talk in there.

Alex told her that was the part she liked about it most.

Kara called her a nerd.

And she didn’t _hate_ her roommates, necessarily, but they were all so much different than her, and each other. 

One girl was blonde and tan, and went to every party she could snag an invite too—which, to Alex, seemed like all of them.

Another was a private school, suburb kid who got in on a scholarship, but suddenly forgot that she was actually supposed to attend classes. Alex doubted that she was going to make it to spring semester.

The fourth girl shared Alex’s room, and she wanted to be like sisters. But Alex already had one of those, and it took them years to be close, and her and this girl had nothing in common. She wasn’t going to let her in just because a computer assigned them to live together.

Then a week ago, on her way to class, someone handed her a flyer. And because the trash can was another 20 yards away, she actually read it.

_WOMEN’S CLUB SOCCER TEAM. ALL SKILL LEVELS WELCOME. FIRST PRACTICE OCTOBER 15th._

She tucked it into her notebook to consider later.

And now here she was. By herself. 

Apparently, it wasn’t a very popular club.

Then suddenly and without warning, a group of girls appeared at once, giggling, chatting, and a couple of them carrying equipment bags with a dozen soccer balls, cones, and flags.

Alex just watched them.

It had become her go-to in college—watching other people. She had friends in high school, and grew up with most of those kids, so it had been a while since she felt this much like an outsider.

She’s watching the group of girls who clearly know each other, wondering if she gets up and leaves, if anyone will notice. So she isn’t paying attention when someone sits at her side. 

“Hi. I’m Maggie.”

She turns to her left, and the girl sitting there is…stunning. She has tanned skin—but not in the fake way Alex’s roommate does—and thick, dark brown hair, and as she’s looking at her, Alex realizes her dark brown eyes have flecks of gold when the sun hits them just right.

The nerves in her stomach tighten further, but there’s something…else…there. Something she’s not really sure how to place.

The girl is still staring at her, and Alex blinks a few times before realizing she hasn’t said anything yet. 

“Alex,” she manages.

“Freshman?”

There’s an ease about this girl— _Maggie_ , she reminds herself—a confidence and swagger that Alex has never possessed. She’s one of those people that could talk to anyone, and make you feel like you’ve been friends for a lifetime. 

Or maybe that’s just how Alex feels, right now. She nervously tucks her short hair behind her ear, “Uh…yeah.”

“Junior. It gets easier. Don’t worry,” she smiles.

And that smile melts nearly all of Alex’s nerves. The confidence, the swagger—and now, she notices, dimples. 

She just nods a little, “Thanks.”

She decides to stay.

…

Turns out the soccer team wasn’t the worst idea she’s ever had. It occupies some of her evenings and weekends, she gets exercise without going to the gym full of frat boys eyeing her every move, and while she wouldn’t say she’s exactly _friends_ with any of the other girls, she gets invited to some parties and hangouts, so at least she’s not always alone.

…

On Halloween, some of those teammates invite her to a party.

They hand her drinks, and a few shots, and even though she doesn’t really want to drink this much, she doesn’t want to bring attention to herself either. She downs the shots, sips on the drinks, and tries to blend in as best she can.

A few hours in, Alex has lost her teammates completely. She has no idea where they are, and if she leaves her place against the wall for more than a few minutes, she gets dizzy.

She taps a guy on the shoulder who’s been dancing with her, and she _thinks_ might be in her biology class—but he looks decidedly the least threatening and most potentially trustworthy person she sees in the room.

“300!”

She can’t remember his name, but he’s dressed as anyone from the movie _300_ , and he turns around, so that’s what she calls him.

She takes a step forward, and it’s a terrible idea. She puts a hand back on the wall to steady herself, “300. Where—where’s my teammates? Have you seen ‘em?” she slurs.

He takes the cup from her hands and sets it on a table covered with 20 more just like it, “Ok. I think you’re done.”

That’s probably not the worst idea, “My…teammates. My—have you…where’d they go?”

“I don’t know. But you should go home, Alex. Where do you live?”

She has no memory of telling this guy her name, but she must’ve. “Grant Hall.”

“Fuck.”

She squints at him, “It’s not so bad. Nicer than Thompson.” She doesn’t know why she feels the need to defend her building’s honor, but she is.

“I’m sure it’s great,” he laughs, “It’s just the furthest away.”

“I’m fine.” It’s still a slur, and she knows it’s not true, but she now wants to be in her room and in her bed more than anything in the world.

“You’re not. And I would take you there, but I drove here, and I cannot drive right now.”

“A car!”

“Yes. I have one. But I’m staying here tonight, and I’m not sober enough to drive you home.”

“No—a car. She has a car.”

“Your roommate?”

“Noooo, 300. My…friend?”

“Alright, come on.” He puts an arm around her and walks her to the front door. Her balance is ok considering how dizzy she feels, but she knows if he wasn’t there, it would be a lot worse. 

She sits on the porch steps and then he sits down next to her, “Who has a car?”

“Dimples.”

He blinks, and she snorts, “Tha’s not her name…”

“I sure hope not.”

“Maggie. Maggie has dimples.”

“And a car…?” he hopes.

“And a car,” she nods.

“Is she at this party too?”

Alex shakes her head slowly, “Nope.”

He holds out his hand, “Phone please.”

She looks around helplessly, then pats herself down, because she actually has no idea where it is. Eventually she realizes it’s in the back pocket of her jeans. She unlocks it and hands it over.

He scrolls through and holds the phone up to his ear, “Maggie? Your friend Alex is at a party on the East corner of campus and she needs a ride home. Can you—? Great. Yeah, that’s the one. On the front porch. Thanks.”

300 hands her the phone and she holds it in her hand, “You called her!”

“I did. She’s coming to pick you up.”

“She’s gonna pick me up? Why? Why would she do that?”

He stares at her, “Because she’s a good friend?”

Alex shakes her head, “Oh we’re not friends.”

“What?! You said you were friends!”

“She’s…she’s on my socks—nope, that’s not it…” she mumbles, “Sock- _er_ teammates. She’s my teammate.”

He sighs, “Ok. That counts. Jesus, I thought I just called some random person. You know her, right?”

“Yes. She’s got dimples.”

“So I’ve heard.”

She looks him up and down, “You don’t have dimples.”

He laughs, “No.”

Alex pokes him in the stomach, “You’ve got _abs_ though.” She feels herself falling closer toward him.

He cups her shoulder and chin gently, and pushes her back up, “Uh…thanks. Are you sure you’re ok?”

“I just…I’m fine. I’ll be fine…”

He keeps his hand on her cheek, and she doesn’t hate it. It’s keeping her from moving and also keeping her from getting dizzy.

He leans in and she’s pretty sure he’s going to kiss her. She doesn’t stop him, and sure enough, their lips meet a few seconds later. She kisses him too, but it feels like…nothing. She pulls back and slides a little bit away from him on the steps.

“I’m sorry,” he whispers, “Was that not ok?”

“No…it’s—it was fine. I’m just…I’m a little dizzy right now,” it’s not a lie, but that’s not why she stopped.

“Alex?”

She looks up and Maggie is standing there, and you can’t see the gold flecks in her eyes, but Alex knows they’re there, and it makes her stomach twist in a different kind of way.

She looks kind of angry, and Alex feels guilty. She was probably out having fun, and now she has to babysit the freshman who apparently can’t hold her alcohol or keep track of her friends.

She bites her lip, “I’m sorry.”

Maggie strides up to the porch and puts a hand on her shoulder, “Are you ok?”

Alex is confused. She looks over at 300 and he’s kind of cowering, then she looks back at Maggie and she’s standing as tall as she can, and Alex wonders if she’s going to fight him, and why, and then she wonders why Maggie would fight someone who had abs like that and was carrying around a spear—even though she’s pretty sure it’s plastic.

“I’m fine. I’m—no, well, I’m very dizzy.”

“You’re drunk,” she says. It’s not angry, but it’s matter-of-fact.

“Yes,” she admits. She can feel her cheeks turning red.

“Let’s get you home.”

Alex nods and stands, but she fumbles, so both 300 and Maggie put hands out to steady her. Sitting wasn’t so bad, but walking is harder than ever. 300 takes her right side, and Maggie takes her left, and together the three of them walk over to Maggie’s slightly beat-up sedan.

Alex climbs in the front seat, and while Maggie goes to the driver’s side, she rolls down the window. 

“Thank you, 300!”

He smirks, “Get home safe, ok?”

She looks over at Maggie, and grins, “I will. Thank you!”

As Maggie pulls away, she yells out the window as loud as she can, “THIS. IS. SPARTAAAA!”

Maggie laughs, and Alex feels very proud of herself. But then Maggie grabs her arm, pulls her back in the car, and rolls up the window. Alex tries to open it again, to yell something else just so she can hear that laugh, but it doesn’t go anywhere.

“No way, Danvers. You’re locked out. You’re also underage, so I don’t recommend drawing _quite_ so much attention to yourself at the moment…”

Alex’s amusement turns to panic, “Oh my god. Oh my god, you’re right. I’m underage. I’m underage, and I’m drunk, and I could go to _jail_ , Maggie…” she looks over and pleads, “Please don’t let me go to jail. My mom will kill me.”

“You’re not going to jail, Alex. You’re going back to your room.”

“She probably already knows. She knows I was drunk, and she’s gonna be so mad, and Kara’s gonna know—my _sister_ —my baby sister is gonna know that I was drunk, and I’m supposed to be a good influence, and…” Alex starts tearing up and Maggie slows to a stop. 

She puts the car in park and reaches out to grab Alex’s shoulder, “Hey. You’re going to be fine, Alex. You’re mom is not going to know unless you tell her. And your sister—your baby sister?”

Alex nods, “Kara.”

“Ok. Kara is not going to know either, because I’m assuming if she’s your little sister, and you’re a freshman, she doesn’t even go here.”

Alex sniffs a few times, and her tears dry, “Right. You’re…you’re right…”

Maggie grins and flashes a dimple, and that feeling that Alex felt seeing her on the first day is back, “Ok. So you live in Grant, right? Do you have your keys?”

Alex looks around and checks all her pockets, and she feels like she’s going to cry again, “I—I don’t have them. I came with someone else and they had keys, but…but then I lost them and now…” 

Maggie grabs her shoulder again, “Breathe. You’re fine.”

She does. But she doesn’t think she’s going to be fine.

“You can stay in my room tonight, and we’ll call your roommates in the morning.”

And she’s barely said five words to Maggie since the first day of practice, but for some reason, she trusts her completely. It might have something to do with the fact that she picked her up from a frat party without hesitation. Or maybe because she looked like she was about to fight a gladiator for some reason that Alex couldn’t comprehend.

Maggie parks the car and helps her out, looping an arm around her waist and walking her to the door. She swipes her Student ID, and Alex frantically searches her pockets, “Maggie? I don’t—I don’t have my ID! They’re not going to let me in.”

“They will,” she says simply. 

Alex wonders again about the confidence. Where does a person get that from? Does she just think she can do whatever she wants, or does the universe bend to her every whim, or does she just not care about rules? Alex has no idea. Nothing in her world works like that.

It unlocks, and they stumble awkwardly through the door that was only meant for one person at a time. 

Maggie nods to the guy behind the desk, “Back in five.”

He barely looks up from his textbook, but waves a little.

“ _How_?” Alex is baffled. Usually they check IDs, and if you don’t live in the building, you have to sign a sheet, but you _also_ have to show an ID, and there’s a curfew, and RA’s, and…none of that just happened.

Maggie ignores the question, “Is the elevator going to make you sick?”

Alex squints, “I don’t think so?” She has no idea. Do elevators make people sick? 

Maggie seems to work it out for herself, “I’m on the fourth floor, so we’re gonna risk it. Please don’t puke on me though.”

The doors slide open and they go in, and Alex focuses on not throwing up. She doesn’t even think she’s going to, but she’s definitely not going to right after Maggie just told her not to.

When she opens the door to her room, Alex realizes it’s way smaller than her own. Where hers is set up like a two bedroom apartment—with a full kitchen and living room area—this one is barely what could be considered a studio. 

It’s not bunk beds exactly, but the top part is her bed and the bottom is a desk. There’s a little dresser, and a mini-fridge with a microwave on top, and a bean bag chair on the floor, and a door to what Alex is assuming is a bathroom.

Maggie ushers her inside and closes the door, “Do you want to change out of that?”

Alex looks down at herself, and nods. She has no idea how she’s going to fit in the smaller girl’s clothes, but she really doesn’t want to sleep in her tight jeans and low-cut tank top.

She’s handed a pair of soccer shorts, a t-shirt, and a sweatshirt—and then Maggie grins, “I’d give you sweatpants, but I’m pretty sure they wouldn’t be long enough…”

That’s probably true. Alex smiles, “Thank you.”

Maggie shifts awkwardly, “Um…so I have to go, actually. But just downstairs,” she adds quickly. 

“Oh. Ok…”

“I’m working the front desk tonight, but I had Greg cover for me when you called.”

Alex is sobering up a little, but she’s still too drunk to put all those pieces together, “Then I should go…”

“No no,” Maggie laughs, “Stay. You can sleep in my room. I’m working until 7AM, and I don’t have roommates, obviously—so you’re fine. I’ll be back when my shift’s over.”

“Your room is so small…” she mutters. Then she blushes. She didn’t mean to say that out loud.

Maggie flashes both dimples when she grins, “Yeah it is. I’m an RA. So the upside is free room and board, and my own room—but the downside is that it’s the size of a broom closet, and I have to work the occasional overnight shift.”

“But you can sneak people in,” Alex smirks.

Maggie runs a hand through her hair and Alex is mesmerized, watching it tumble back down around her shoulders. She shrugs, “Sometimes. Except I know you go here, and besides, you look pretty harmless.”

Alex scoffs, “I am _not_ harmless! I’m friends with a gladiator!”

Maggie laughs, and it’s better than when Alex made her laugh in the car.

“I think when you look through your photos in the morning, you might be… _surprised…_ at what your gladiator in shining armor really looks like…”

Alex tilts her head, “What do you mean?”

“Nothing—nothing,” Maggie laughs. “Get some sleep, Alex. We’ll talk about it in the morning.”

Maggie leaves, and Alex stands there for a few seconds, unsure of what to do. 

She finds out the other door _does_ go to a bathroom, so she changes in there, and splashes some water on her face, and folds her own clothes.

When she walks back into the room, she climbs up the ladder and sits awkwardly on the bed. She’s tired, but she can’t sleep here. In someone else’s room…under someone else’s sheets…it’s weird.

She climbs back down, makes a few wrong turns on her way to the elevator, and goes back down to the lobby. Now she does feel a little sick—but she still refuses to throw up in it.

“Where are you going, Danvers?

Alex didn’t even see her. She pauses, “Um…”

Those brown eyes are staring at her from behind the front desk, and Alex feels like a deer in the headlights.

“You’re not leaving unless someone is here to pick you up. And you still don’t have keys to your room.”

“I was…I—I just can’t sleep,” she mumbles. It feels childish to say, but it’s the truth. Her head is pounding, and she’s exhausted, but she can’t sleep in Maggie’s room by herself. It’s too strange.

Maggie shuts her textbook and comes around the desk. She nods toward the open couches on the other side of the room, “Well…sit down here at least.”

Alex does, and Maggie sits next to her and hands her a bottle of water, “And drink this.”

She does.

“Are you ok?”

Alex nods, “I didn’t mean to…I’ve never had that much to drink. I’ve actually never even been drunk. I’m sorry for all of this.”

Maggie shrugs, “It’s ok. It happens—especially to freshmen,” she grins.

Alex buries her head in her hands, shutting her eyes tight in hopes of getting rid of her headache, “I didn’t even want to drink,” she mumbles.

A hand is on her arm so quickly, and the grip is tighter than she expected. Her eyes pop open and Maggie’s staring at her, looking very concerned, “Did he make you? The guy. Did he get you drunk—”

She seems very mad at 300 again, but Alex shakes her head as fast as she dares, “No. No he didn’t do anything. Diana…” she sighs, “Diana kept handing me drinks, and I…I didn’t know how to say no.”

“ _Diana_ brought you there?”

Alex nods. Diana was one of their captains. She was nice, but Alex quickly realized that her idea of a good time and Diana’s were not the same. She was having a decent time at the party, but she didn’t need quite as much alcohol to get to that point.

“And she _left you_ there?”

Alex just shrugs. She didn’t really care. They weren’t best friends or anything. She just wishes she would’ve figured out a better way home.

Maggie looks like she wants to punch something, “I’m gonna kill her.”

“It’s fine.”

“It’s _not_.” When she turns to Alex, the rage disappears, and something resembling concern is left on her face, “Alex, as your friend, I’m going to tell you a secret about college—nope, life. This is for your whole life, ok?”

She gulps. She has no idea where this is going.

Maggie takes her hand, and Alex looks at it like she’s not even sure it’s still attached to her body.

“You don’t have to do things you don’t want to do, ok? You’re still thinking like you’re in high school, and trying to fit in, and be cool, or whatever…but this is college, ok? There are more people here than whatever high school you went to. So if you don’t feel comfortable doing something, I promise you there are people who are ok with that. If you want to get drunk at parties, that’s fine—but you said you didn’t. And if you didn’t want to, you didn’t have to, ok?”

That’s a lot of information, and her brain is processing at a slightly slower rate, but she nods anyway, “Ok.”

Maggie drops her hand, “That guy didn’t…do anything inappropriate, did he?”

She thinks back, “No? I kissed him too.”

“Oh. Ok. Well that’s…good.”

Then Alex remembers that Maggie just called her a friend, and that plus whatever was in the cups she was drinking make her brave, “Hey, Maggie?”

“Yeah?”

“Um…” she can’t look her in the eye, but she says it, “Does it always feel like that?”

“What?”

Alex looks up, and Maggie looks genuinely lost, “Uh…kissing. Does it always feel like…nothing?”

She expects Maggie to laugh at her, but her face softens, “Have you never done that before?”

“No, not really,” she mumbles. She knew it was weird for someone in college, but…the opportunity never presented itself. She wasn’t actively trying _not_ to kiss anyone, it just never happened for her.

Maggie considers the question, “One day, when it’s right, it’ll feel like something.”

“So it’s not supposed to feel like nothing?”

She grins, “I don’t know if it’s _supposed_ _to_ feel like anything, but for most people—and again, when it’s right—it feels like a lot more than nothing.”

The door buzzes, and Maggie stands up to check in the group of students stumbling through the door.

Alex can barely keep her eyes open anymore. She curls up on the couch and listens as Maggie chats with them briefly, and they noisily make their way to the elevator. 

She forces her eyes open when she feels something drape over her legs, and sees Maggie standing over her, throwing another sweatshirt over Alex like a blanket.

“Go to sleep, Alex.”

Alex curls up tighter, “So we’re friends, Maggie?”

“Yeah, Danvers.” 

Alex can hear the disbelief in her voice. Like they’ve been friends for a lifetime and she suddenly questioned it.

“Swagger,” she mumbles.

Maggie laughs, and Alex opens her eyes a little to catch a glimpse of it. Her stomach swoops. _That_ feels like more than nothing…but she’s too tired to think about it.

“Goodnight, Danvers.”

“Night.”

…

Alex wakes up on the couch at the end of Maggie’s shift, but now that it’s morning, and the alcohol has worn off, she’s not brave. She’s just embarrassed.

She gets her clothes from upstairs and changes. Then she mumbles something about studying, and leaves.

A few days later, she seriously considers not showing up for practice. She’s been ignoring Maggie’s texts, but she knows she’s going to have to see her eventually.

When she shows up, some of the girls are sitting around and chatting, but Maggie’s not there. She laces up her cleats, and that’s when she sees her walking the perimeter of the field. She jogs over, and realizes she’s pushing the thing that paints the lines on the grass.

“Hey.”

Maggie smiles, “Hey, Alex. How’re ya feeling?”

“Oh…fine. Thanks. Thanks for everything. I…uh…I really appreciate it. And I’m sorry I was so embarrassing.”

Maggie laughs and Alex’s stomach swoops again. She bites her cheek. 

“How’s 300?”

She squints, “Who?”

Maggie stops and stares at her, with this glint in her eye that Alex isn’t sure how to read, “300? The gladiator?”

Alex has no idea what she’s talking about.

Maggie looks like she’s trying not to laugh, “Do you have your phone?” 

She digs it out of her sweatshirt pocket and holds it out. Maggie takes it gently from her hands. Her finger hovers over the photo button, “May I?”

She doesn’t care, “Sure.”

Maggie opens the album and skims through the last few photos until she must find what she’s looking for. She enlarges it and flips the phone around for Alex to see.

It’s definitely Alex. Alex and…this guy. This guy she has never seen before in her life, but is definitely dressed like someone from the movie _300_ —complete with painted on six-pack abs. Then she gasps, “Oh my god, is that _Winn_!?”

Her eyes go wide and she looks up at Maggie, but she just shrugs.

Alex now realizes Maggie has no idea who her biology lab partner is. She zooms in on the photo and to her relief, she now notices it’s _not_ Winn—but they do look similar.

“No, not him. Oh thank god,” she breathes.

Maggie smirks, “Ex-boyfriend?”

Alex tries not to visibly wince, “Uh, no. Lab partner.”

“Ah, well…apparently this guy is not a very good kisser, so just…FYI.”

Alex’s stomach drops, “Oh _noooo_. I kissed this guy, didn’t I?” she doesn’t wait for an answer, “Ew, my first—uh…” she clears her throat, and she feels the heat in her cheeks, “Nothing. Never mind.”

Maggie glances over her shoulder, and lowers her voice, “Maybe…a few less drinks next time? Yeah?”

She suddenly remembers their conversation and how she admitted she’d never kissed anyone, and that kissing this guy felt like nothing. She nods, “Definitely.”

Then Maggie grins and flashes those dimples, “Or at least, save those drinks for nights with your real friends,” she winks.

She starts walking again, painting the lines on the edge of the grass, and Alex stands there stunned for a few more seconds.

“Wait—” she yells across the field. Maggie stops and looks over her shoulder and Alex watches those gold flecks flicker in the sunlight, “Are we real friends?”

Maggie rolls her eyes and laughs loudly, “ _Yeah_ , Alex. Keep up.”

Alex’s stomach swoops and she grins. She takes that direction literally, jogging up to match Maggie’s stride. She feels light and floaty—and not like she did from the alcohol, but like she might actually have a real friend now. 

A real friend, like she had in high school, before things got…well, whatever. 

She won’t screw it up, this time.

…


	15. Donuts

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sanvers Week Day 2: Coffee Shop AU

Alex is standing at the counter, wrench in hand, staring at the toaster oven and willing it to finally just…work. She spins the little dial, and it sputters and clunks, and then sparks—and then dies altogether.

She groans, and puts her head in her hands. The bells on the door jingle, telling her someone just walked in, and she doesn’t even look up, “We’re closed.” 

She’s going to have to remind Kara about locking the door on her way out again. 

“Oh…sorry. The sign said—” Then Maggie swallows hard, because when another teacher said, “Go see Alex at the coffee shop,” Maggie was expecting a middle-aged dude. Not a stunning woman with short reddish-brown hair and fair skin, who somehow made a plain white t-shirt, dark jeans, and a dirty apron look like the sexiest outfit she’s ever seen. 

“Um, are you Alex?”

Alex puts down the wrench, and wipes her hands on the already dirty apron around her waist. She unplugs the toaster oven just in case it decides to work while she’s not watching it and burns her whole business to the ground.

“Yeah, I’m—” she freezes, because the woman in front of her is easily the most beautiful woman she’s ever seen in her entire life, and she wishes she wasn’t covered in flour and coffee from the morning rush, and also now covered in grease and grit from this stupid fucking toaster oven that dies every other day, “Alex.”

“Maggie Sawyer,” the woman smiles. She has a smile that seems kind and familiar, and a hint of dimples that make Alex go a little weak at the knees, and she tries not to look like an idiot.

Now she’s glad Kara isn’t here to witness her patheticness—and she might even thank her for leaving the door unlocked.

Alex tries to remember she’s a grown woman with a semi-successful business, and not some doe-eyed teenager, “Can I help you, Miss Sawyer?”

“Please,” she waves her off, “Maggie.”

Maggie slides up to one of the stools at the counter, and looks around the room, “Nice place you’ve got here. Different.” She’s never seen anything like it. It was cluttered and warm and eclectic, but in a way that only made it more lived-in. More cozy.

Alex laughs a little. _Different_ was definitely the word for it. 

It was an old building in the center of town that used to be a bar—so it was all dark wood and dim windows, and that was the one part Alex wishes she could change about it. One day she’s going to put in bigger windows to let in more light—but not until she hits the lottery, or can manage to keep all the appliances working at the same time.

Technically, it was a coffee shop and bakery. The bar was now covered in flavored syrups and espresso machines and dessert displays. And while there were a few of the original barstools left at the counter, the inside was now overstuffed couches, armchairs, and coffee tables, with a few mismatched kitchen tables and chairs thrown in there too.

Kara says it’s homey, Alex wished the furniture matched. 

There was an upstairs too, because apparently in a time that Alex can’t really even fathom, bars were inns and had rooms for people to stay. But she hasn’t really figured out what to do with them yet. Sometimes kids sat on the stairs, but the door was always closed at the top, and the rooms were just filled with books and some stuff she hadn’t been able to fit in her actual apartment, and had to take out of her mom’s house, and wasn’t ready to get rid of just yet.

“Yeah, it’s a little different,” she admits.

“I like it.” She loves it, actually. “And that’s kind of why I’m here.”

“You want to buy it?” she half-jokes. 

“No, no. I would…I would _not_ be good at that.”

Alex smirks, “Well, that’s not a requirement, obviously,” she gestures to the busted toaster and Maggie laughs. It fills her stomach with butterflies and is so much better than the grin and the dimples—although she’s happy to note that the dimples are present in the laugh too.

Maggie slides a card across the table, and watches Alex pick it up, “A guidance counselor?” She should’ve expected the confusion on her face, but the way her expression changes makes Maggie’s stomach flutter. It’s an adorable confused face. 

“I…uh…I don’t have any idea how I can help you.”

Maggie watches her slip the card in her back pocket, instead of across the bar into Maggie’s hands again. That gives her hope, “I’m here for my students. They’re…struggling.”

This is making less sense to Alex now.

This is only the first place she’s stopped, so Maggie hasn’t really nailed down the speech yet, “Um…they have midterms coming up, and they don’t have places to study, and a lot of them get…distracted at home,” she doesn’t add _or worse_ , because that’s between her and her students. But for a lot of them, it’s much worse than distraction. 

“The library is just down the road. And they’re open late most nights…” 

Alex spent a lot of time in the library as a kid, and more when she didn’t feel like going home after her dad died. She still stops by on Thursday afternoons to give Mrs. Nicholson coffee and a donut on her way home. She was mostly retired now, but she was Alex’s favorite librarian. She always seemed to know exactly what books Alex was looking for, even when she couldn’t describe it.

“Right. It is. For some of them, it works. For others…it doesn’t. They can’t help each other study, or shout flash card answers, or sing songs or whatever things they decide will help them ace exams.”

Alex is looking at her like she has four heads. She studied a lot in her life, but never like that. Songs? What kind of counselor thinks that’s studying?

“Singing?” she repeats. She didn’t really mean to say it, but it kind of falls out of her mouth in her stunned state.

Maggie smirks, “You never did that, I assume?”

Alex snorts, “Uh…no. Can’t say that I did.” It sounds like something Kara might’ve done though.

“It works for some things,” she shrugs, “Although, it’s not great for Geometry, I’ve learned…”

Alex laughs and Maggie’s stomach flips. She wasn’t even trying to be funny, but she’s going to try now, because that laugh is something she’d definitely like to hear again.

When Alex’s laughter dies down, she shakes her head a little, “I feel like this is going to take a few minutes for you to explain properly. Can I get you coffee or something? I think we have a few donuts left…”

“Any chance they’re vegan?”

Alex is staring at her like she has four heads again, and Maggie blushes under that look.

“Uh…no. Sorry. They’re just regular donuts. I do have soy milk for coffee, though.”

Maggie was expecting Alex to laugh at her, but she apologized instead. That was not a reaction she typically got, “Coffee would be great, thanks.”

…

“So she wants you to what? Tutor a bunch of kids? Can kids even drink coffee? I know you can’t like…card them like it’s alcohol or something, but it seems like you shouldn’t be giving teenagers coffee.”

Kara plops down next to Alex on the couch in her apartment, and grabs another slice of pizza.

Alex shakes her head, “No, no. Water, iced tea—or hot tea, I guess? We agreed on no coffee—although you know those kids are going to Starbucks anyways.”

“True,” Kara admits.

“They just need somewhere safe to go. We close at two, so it’s not like we’ll be losing business.”

“Do I need to make them something? I usually just make enough food for the morning rush, and let it sell out until lunch time. But I feel like we should have _something_ for them…”

Alex bites her lip, and Kara knows she’s thinking about money. The coffee shop got them by, but there wasn’t much to spare. They lived comfortably because they budgeted. They had a small savings for when things inevitably needed to be fixed, but they tried not to touch it.

“You’re right. Maybe donuts? Those are pretty quick and fairly cheap to make. You don’t have to go crazy, just a couple kinds. And who knows? These kids might not show up anyway.”

“If I was in high school, and you told me I could go down to the local coffee shop and get free donuts, I would’ve at least pretended to study for an hour or so,” she laughs.

Alex puts her little sister in a headlock, “You’d do _anything_ for a donut!”

“This is also true,” she beams, “That’s what makes me such a great baker!”

“The best,” she sighs. Kara leans further into her side, and Alex lets her mind wander off, “Hey, Kara?”

“Yeah?”

“Have you ever made a vegan donut?”

She sits up and looks at her sister. That’s an odd question. She shrugs, “No…but I like a challenge.”

…

After some phone calls to hammer out the details, a few days later, Kara sticks a poster on the front door:

_“Thursday Study Sessions: 3PM - 8PM. High School Students Only. IDs Mandatory.”_

There’s some other information on there too, and Kara had designed it so it looked way better than the Word doc Alex had initially showed her that made her cringe. 

Although she’d never admit it, Alex was grateful for the redesign, because she wouldn’t have been able to look Maggie Sawyer in the face again if she’d seen how terrible her poster looked.

This one though, had gone over quite well. Alex dropped them off proudly at the high school in the afternoon, and practically skipped back to her car because Maggie had given her a hug as a thank you.

That part, she _did_ tell Kara about. She promptly squealed and danced around like a goon, and Alex was embarrassed—but she also felt on the inside exactly like Kara looked on the outside: like a goon.

…

At 2 o’clock the following Thursday, Alex is nervously wandering through the dining room area, cleaning tables, when there’s a loud clatter from the kitchen.

“Kara?”

“I’m fine! Fine. Just…dropped a pan…” she mumbles.

Alex stands and puts a hand on her hip, trying to see through the little window to the kitchen, “Did you forget potholders again?”

“Nooo…”

“Kara…” she warns.

“Ugh…ok, _yes_. But I’m fine! I’m fine!” she insists.

“If I have to take you to the emergency room, you’re going to be a lot less fine—and not just from the burns.”

Her head pops through the window, and her face is pure mischief, “Why? Because I’d ruin your big d—” she’s suddenly having some sort of coughing fit, “Uh…night?” 

Alex knew she was going to say _date_ , because she’s been calling it that all week—much to her annoyance. But she doesn’t know why her face suddenly looks like she saw a ghost until she feels a nudge in her ribs that makes her jump out of her skin.

Maggie puts both hands on Alex’s arms, “Oh my god, I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to scare you. I’m sorry…” She tries not to laugh, but Alex jumped a foot in the air, and it was objectively hilarious, “I’m sorry,” she laughs. She lets go of Alex’s arms to cover her face, and hopefully drown some of her laughter, “Sorry, Alex,” she mumbles.

Alex glares at her sister, and then at the door that didn’t ring like it was supposed to when someone opened it. Her heart is racing, but Maggie is laughing and Alex can see her dimples through her fingers, and she still feels the heat from the place where her hands were just on her arms. She takes a deep breath, “It’s fine.”

Maggie blushes and peers out from behind her hands, “Yeah?”

“Yeah. You’re forgiven…” the she slaps Maggie lightly with the towel in her hands, “ _this time_ …” she threatens.

Maggie raises an eyebrow, but doesn’t get a chance to say anything.

“Donuts are done!”

Kara flits from the kitchen up to the bar, effortlessly balancing two huge trays of donuts that she slides onto the counter.

Maggie looks up at Alex in awe, “You didn’t have to do all this. Just opening the doors was enough.”

Alex shrugs a little, “Nah. Studying is always better with donuts.”

“Um, _everything_ is better with donuts,” Kara grins.

“You must be Kara,” Maggie assumes this is the little sister/baker Alex mentioned a few times.

Alex feels extra dumb, “Oh, right. Kara, this is Maggie. Maggie, Kara—my sister.”

Maggie extends her hand, but a buzzer goes off in the kitchen and Kara holds up a finger, leaving the woman standing there awkwardly. She hopes she can make up for it when she returns a few minutes later, with a half-dozen warm donuts on a little plate, now properly cooled and glazed and colorfully sprinkled.

“Sorry! Timers and such…” she mutters, “Donut?”

Maggie almost does it—because they look _amazing—_ but she will definitely be sick later, and she doesn’t want to be sick when the students show up in less than an hour, “No, thank you. They look incredible though.”

Alex squints at her sister, and at the two huge trays, “I think you had plenty…?”

Kara looks down at the donuts in her hand, and then back up at Alex, confused, “These are the vegan ones. You said—”

“Nothing! Perfect. That’s…perfect, Kara. I’m glad you finally worked that recipe out,” she walks away from Maggie to hide the crimson that’s creeping up her cheeks, “I’m gonna get that iced tea…”

Maggie looks back down at the donuts and the little sister, but she can’t hide the smirk on her face, “These are for me, aren’t they?” she whispers.

Kara looks nervously at her sister, not wanting to betray her trust, and then back at the woman that she hardly knows, but makes her sister giddy in a way Kara’s never seen before, “I think so, yeah.”

Maggie takes one and winks at her, before following Alex to the back. She takes a bite and turns on her heel, “Kara, you _made_ this?”

Kara can’t decide if this is going to be a compliment or an insult, “Yes?”

“These are incredible. Um…save me at least one more?”

Kara grins, “They’re all yours.”

…

That evening goes pretty well. The donuts are a hit, and only two students complained that they couldn’t have coffee. Maggie just laughed and shook her head, “Listen—there will be plenty of time in your life to have coffee, ok? You’ll probably live on it through college. Right now, you don’t need it. You can keep those brain cells functioning without it, I promise.”

Alex was impressed with the way Maggie talked to the students. She didn’t talk down to them, or baby them, or try to be their best friends—but she fell somewhere in the middle of all that. There was a mutual respect, and she helped kids work through problems as best she could, but she also didn’t let them goof around too much. She actually kicked out a few rowdy boys who came for donuts, but didn’t bring any kind of study materials.

A few hours in, Kara hugs Alex and says she’s headed home.

“Oh! And Maggie’s donuts are in the back. Do-nut let her forget them,” she grins.

Alex rolls her eyes, “You really need some new material, sis.”

“Hmm…” she pretends to think about that, “I do-nut think I do.”

“I hate you,” Alex grumbles.

Kara hugs her again, “You love me.”

She makes it halfway to the door, and Alex calls after her, “No, I do-nut!” She can hear her little cackle all the way out the door, and it makes her happy. She does love that little goofball so much, and Kara knows it.

Maggie catches the whole exchange, and it sort of surprises her. Alex wasn’t cold, but she was a little closed off. Around Kara though, she relaxed. Maggie wonders how long it takes for a person to scale those walls.

“Miss Sawyer?”

She blinks a few times at the student at her side, “Yeah? Sorry. What’s the question?”

“Calculus.”

She frowns, “Oof. Unfortunately, you are on your own there. Can any of your classmates help you?”

The girl glances around the room, but sighs, “Doubt it.”

Alex hops off the barstool she was perched on, “Um…can I see that?”

Maggie doesn’t mean to be gaping, but she can’t help it.

“Don’t look so shocked, _Miss Sawyer_ …” she grins smugly.

“I…uh…” she opens and closes her mouth a few times, “Sorry. Didn’t expect that.”

Alex shrugs, “It happens,” she says easily. No one ever expects that. She takes the book from the girl’s hand, and considers the problem, “Do you have a graphing calculator?”

She looks a little embarrassed, and Alex doesn’t understand why until she hands over the calculator. It’s almost as old as she is. To a high school kid now, it might as well be an abacus. Her cell phone may not have all the right buttons, but the processor inside of it is like 100x faster. She can work with it though.

“Alright, let’s see what you’ve got…” she grabs the seat across from the girl and starts shaking the cobwebs out of the part of her brain that used to know all this stuff.

She catches Maggie staring at her and winks. 

Maggie blushes and busies herself with a few other students, and Alex feels her heart thump a little louder.

…

At the end of the night, Alex is throwing all the dishes in the huge sink, when Maggie walks in and rolls up her sleeves, “Need a hand?”

“Uh, sure. Let me get you some gloves.”

Alex grabs some of the long rubber gloves and hands them over to Maggie. When their hands brush, she tries not to think about how her skin tingles.

Maggie puts them on, pulling them up over her elbows, and laughs at herself, “It’s a good look, really.”

Alex grins, “When your hands aren’t shriveled and smell like soap and sanitizer, you’ll be thankful for them.”

She didn’t consider that, “You need a dishwasher.”

Alex gestures from head to toe with an overly flashy grin, “You’re looking at her!”

Maggie laughs bigger this time, and Alex wants to kiss her right here, right now—but that’s a little forward. She doesn’t even know if she likes women. Although the way she’s been staring at her all night, Alex thinks her chances are pretty good.

“I’ll wash and you can rinse and dry, ok?”

Maggie tilts her head, “Takin’ it easy on me, Danvers?”

“A little,” she laughs, “But I’m used to it. Kara usually calls dibs on rinsing.”

“I don’t have a little sister, but that sounds like a very little sister thing to do.”

“Um, yes it is,” she deadpans. “I don’t mind though. I like taking care of Kara sometimes. Not because I have to, of course—she can look out for herself—but because I just…I like to.”

“And who takes care of you?” she wonders. Oh god. She did _not_ just say that out loud. She looks away quickly, and it feels like her cheeks are on fire, and she’s terrified—but not in a good way. “I’m sorry. I don’t know why… Please forget I said that,” she mumbles.

Alex’s eyes fly wide at the question and her heart feels like it’s going to beat right out of her chest. But Maggie looks embarrassed, and she doesn’t want to make the situation worse. She nudges Maggie’s hip with her own, “Scoot.”

Maggie looks up hesitantly and confused.

Alex nods toward the sink, “This is my side, I need you to scoot over a little.”

She looks down at the partitioned sink, and at her hands that she forgot were in these gloves, and her throat is dry, “Right. Uh…sorry.”

Alex cannot forget that question even if she wanted to, but she’s gonna try really hard so that maybe Maggie will stay longer. She starts washing the mountain of cups and tiny plates in the sink, glancing to her right only when she has to drop a dish in the next section over, to be rinsed.

“So Maggie…are you new here? I can’t say I’ve ever seen you around before. I grew up here. I don’t know _everyone_ , per se, but I know a lot of them.”

Maggie wills her voice to not come out like a squeak, “Yeah. Moved here over the summer. It’s my first year at this high school.”

“Hmm. Do you like it here so far? I know it’s…different. It’s nothing fancy or particularly exciting.”

This was more excitement than Maggie’s had in a few years, so she disagrees entirely—but that’s not what Alex means, “It’s nice. Quiet, but not too quiet. A variety of people. Not too far from a big city. I’ve seen worse.”

Alex smirks, “‘ _Midvale—I’ve seen worse_.’ I think we found our new slogan.”

Maggie laughs, and it looks like she relaxes a little. That makes Alex relax a little too. She tries to be casual as she asks the question she’s been dying to know, “So…single? Dating? Married?” she doesn’t drop any gender-specific pronouns in there, in hopes that Maggie will fill in the rest.

“Uh…single.” Maggie looks over her shoulder and wonders if she should clarify that statement. Maybe Alex will, “You?”

“Also single.” She’s going to have to go first, “I got out of a pretty serious relationship about a year ago, but after she and I broke up…”

There’s a dull _thud_ and Alex looks over to see Maggie trying to get a better grip on the soapy mug she just dropped. She bites back a grin, “…I don’t know. I haven’t thought much about dating since.”

Maggie’s brain was so focused on hearing the word _she_ that she dropped the mug in her hands and scrambles to pick it up. But after that, she’s oddly calm. Now she doesn’t feel as nervous about the crush she’s had on this woman since about seven seconds after she first laid eyes on her.

Then without warning, Alex switches topics entirely, “This went well, don’t you think? With the kids?”

Maggie’s trying to keep up, “Oh, yeah. I think it did. Sorry about the rowdy ones. I told them they could only come to study, but there’s always one…”

“They’re teenagers,” she waves off the apology. Alex thinks about that girl with the calculator, “Does the school have decent supplies? That calculator…that was older than I am, I think.” 

Maggie shrugs, “The school does, but a lot of students don’t. The good calculators can’t leave the property. Makes it tough for some kids to do homework.”

“That doesn’t make any sense.”

“It does and it doesn’t. A lot of the kids would take them home and be responsible enough to bring them back mostly unharmed. A few of the kids would ruin it for everyone, and the school doesn’t have enough money to risk it.”

Alex gets an idea, but she needs to make sure of one thing first, “Do you think…the kids will come back?”

Maggie consider that. Teenagers were fairly unpredictable, but it seemed like there was a decent group of kids who enjoyed themselves, “I hope so?”

They’re out of dishes in what feels like record time. Alex pulls the drain on the sinks, “If they keep coming back…I might have an idea to maybe…improve a few things. But I think it’ll only work if they show up fairly consistently.”

Maggie’s intrigued, “Ok. Well…if your sister keeps making them donuts, I’m sure that’ll help your cause.”

“I can have her do that,” Alex grins. She pulls off her gloves and takes Maggie’s too, then leads her out into the dining area. She glances up the stairs, “Actually, if you have a quick second, I’d like to give you something.”

She has no idea what Alex could possibly want to give her, but Maggie finds herself unable to leave, “Sure.”

Alex grabs her hand and tugs her toward the staircase in the corner. Maggie’s curious about what’s upstairs, but she’s more curious at the fact that their hands fit perfectly together and how soft Alex’s is—and somehow the second curiosity pushes all other thoughts from her head. She’s not even paying attention, and suddenly they’re in a hallway with six doors—three on either side.

“What is this place?”

“Oh,” Alex realized she hadn’t really explained. She drops Maggie’s hand to pull the keys from her pocket and unlock the first door, “This place was a bar. And I guess way, _way,_ before my time, also an inn? So when we rented the building it came with the second floor. Neither Kara or I could live here—it’s kind of cramped and awkward, and personally, I enjoy _leaving_ work—not living in it.”

“Makes sense.”

“So it’s mostly just storage right now. My apartment is too cramped for some of this stuff, but I wanted to get it out of my mom’s house.”

Maggie notices she says “mom’s” and not “parent’s” and she wonders about that, but she doesn’t ask, “Childhood keepsakes?” she grins.

Alex tries not to let the pain show in her eyes. She avoids Maggie’s gaze, “Um…something like that.” _Childhood trauma, is more accurate_ , she thinks. She pushes open one of the doors that she knows has some of her old textbooks and lab equipment. Maggie wanders around, and Alex realizes she’s looking at things, but also careful not to look too closely, open, or touch anything. It’s kind of sweet.

She digs in a couple boxes until she finds what she’s looking for, and emerges from one with a large black calculator and a grin that Maggie has come to really find cute, “Um…it’s not the greatest, but it’s better than what she had. It doesn’t do pre-calc, but she was in AP calculus, so I can’t imagine she’ll be going backwards…”

Alex holds out the calculator and Maggie takes is carefully, “Are you sure?”

“Yeah, it’s just collecting dust in here. I haven’t used it in years—obviously.”

Maggie looked around a little, and this room is filled with boxes of books—mostly textbooks—and mostly books about science and math and astronomy. There was even what she suspects is a telescope under a sheet in the corner, but she’s too afraid to ask about it. _Curiouser, and curiouser_ … 

“Thanks. I’m sure she’ll really appreciate this.”

Alex looks at her watch and it’s after 9PM, “Oh, crap. I, uh…this is gonna sound so lame, and I apologize in advance—but I have to go. I have to go to bed.”

She blushes, and Maggie grins, “Did I keep you out past curfew?”

“Sort of?” she folds up the boxes and Maggie takes the hint, and starts walking out the door. “It’s just that we open at 6AM, and Kara starts baking at 4, so I…I really need to get home and wind down and go to sleep.”

Maggie tries not to let her mind wander off on that nightly routine, but she’s pretty sure she’ll be thinking about it later. They get back to the dining room and Maggie slings her bag over her shoulder, “Understandable. I’m sorry I kept you out so late.”

“I’m glad you did.” And Alex means it. This was surprisingly fun—and it didn’t hurt that she got to spend so much time with the woman she hasn’t been able to stop thinking about for a week. “Same time next week?”

Maggie’s halfway out the door, and she turns back and grins, “I’m sure I’ll see you before that.”

“Wait!”

She does.

Alex runs to the back and reappears in seconds with a plastic-wrapped plate of donuts, “I was told to give these to you.”

Maggie takes it and laughs, “Um…I think I told her to save me _one_ , not five.”

Alex heart stops at the sight of those dimples again, “Oh, well…Kara never listens to things like that. If you said you liked them, she’ll make them every day until you tell her to stop.”

“Really?”

“I can’t even look at apple turnovers anymore,” Alex warns, “Every day for three months.”

Maggie laughs, “That’s commitment, Danvers. I feel like I would’ve given in after three days.”

She shrugs, “She was new, and she was so proud…I didn’t want to hurt her feelings.”

The word “new” sticks out in Maggie’s mind, but she doesn’t know what to do with it, “Ok, I need to test your theory.”

“How?”

“I guess I’ll see you tomorrow,” she grins.

Alex feels heat through her whole body, “I hope so.”

…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There was more to this story, but life happened. Since it's _almost_ like teachers, I'll probably cheat and use the second half for the Teachers AU day on Saturday. ;)


	16. More Donuts

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sanvers fluff! A continuation of the previous chapter [here](http://archiveofourown.org/works/11754990/chapters/31405935).Try really hard to pretend this is a Teachers AU. ;)

It is way too early, much too quickly for Alex’s liking. She slams her hand on the alarm clock and reluctantly rolls out of bed. After she showers, she’s standing in front of her dresser, and grabs her usual t-shirt—then hesitates.

_I guess I’ll see you tomorrow._

She puts the t-shirt back and grabs a light blue button-down instead. It’s probably going to get dirty, but maybe Maggie will show up before it’s a completely lost cause. 

She even blow dries her hair and throws on a bit of mascara.

It’s still dark out when she stumbles through the back door of the coffee shop. Kara is halfway through her morning baking, music playing softly as she sings along.

As much as Alex hates the initial moment of being jarred awake at 4AM, her sister is such a morning person, that a few minutes after she walks in to work, she’s almost always in a better mood.

Kara is mixing up a giant tub of chocolate glaze, and Alex’s stomach grumbles, “Morning, Kara.”

“Hey!” She turns around and has chocolate on her nose, and Alex grins. She shakes her head slightly, grabs a clean towel, and wipes off her little sister’s face.

“Thank you. Bagels will be done in…” she leans over to check the timer, “five minutes? Coffee’s up front already.”

“I love you,” Alex sighs. That was the upside to the business—she rarely had to make her own breakfast and the coffee was always fresh.

She doesn’t really have anything to do for a while, so she pours herself a cup of coffee and sits on a stool in the back, watching Kara work. She’s tried to help a few times, but now Kara declines—if she’s truly behind, she’ll let Alex put sprinkles on some of the donuts. 

That’s about all Alex trusts herself with anyway.

“You look particularly nice this morning…”

Kara’s not even looking at her, but she must’ve noticed before. Alex blushes, but she likes the butterflies that suddenly fill her stomach, “Maybe.”

Now she looks, and arches an eyebrow in her direction, “Someone special coming in today?”

Alex takes a sip of coffee, “Maybe.”

“Uh huh…” she smirks. Alex rarely admits to having a crush, even though Kara can always tell, but she doesn’t shy away from this one. That throws her. She doesn’t know how much she can say before Alex will shut down completely. 

Alex watches her sister pour glaze all over a fresh batch of donuts, “Can I do the sprinkles?”

Kara considers it, “Ok…but please try not to smoosh any?”

“Promise.” She’ll be careful, but she needs to distract herself from the painfully slow-moving clock, and daydreaming about whether or not Maggie might come in again, and what she might be wearing, and if she’ll flash the dimples that make Alex’s insides turn to mush.

She puts on the disposable gloves, then takes a donut and presses it into the giant tub of rainbow sprinkles. She holds up the first one, “This good?”

“Perfect,” Kara grins. She grabs the plain bagels out of the oven, and slides them in the wire baskets that will go up front. Then she fills the whole tray with doughy blueberry bagels and throws it back in. When she looks over again, Alex looks lost in thought, but amazingly, every single donut is still intact.

She doesn’t want to interrupt her, so she waits until she’s done, “The vegan ones will be done right before we open.”

Alex laughs, and Kara frowns, “What?”

“Nothing…” She kisses her sister on the cheek, and heads up front to get ready to open.

…

Maggie is running so very late this morning. So late, because she spent all night thinking about Alex Danvers and not sleeping. She hit snooze too many times, and she didn’t even have time to dry her hair, and then she got into the car and realized she was wearing two different shoes—and that added another five minutes to her lateness because she could definitely not walk into the high school and expect her students to not tease her mercilessly for it.

But then she’s driving through the center of town, and her heart skips a beat—and she really shouldn’t—but she pulls up to the coffee shop anyway.

When the bells on the door jingle, Alex has already given up on Maggie coming in this morning. Her heart jumped every time the door opened for the past hour and a half—but now it’s nearly 7:30, and the staff is always at the school earlier than this, so there’s no way she’s going to show up. 

She shouldn’t be so disappointed, but she is.

Her back is toward the door as she’s grabbing a bagel, but when she turns around, Maggie’s standing there with her head cocked to the side, eyeing her up and down, and the smallest grin on her face—and she promptly drops the bagel on the floor.

“Shit—sorry, I’ll grab you a new one, M’gann. Obviously.”

“No problem,” the woman says slowly, “I’ll…uh…be at my usual table. Take you’re time.”

Great. Apparently everyone is going to know about her crush and exactly how useless it makes her. Just what she needs.

Maggie feels the eyes on her from the woman who’s breakfast just ended up on the floor, but she can’t take her own off the woman in front of her. The one who’s not in her usual t-shirt, but instead a blue button-down with her sleeves rolled up—and Maggie tries to remember how to breathe. 

Her heart rate was up from being late, but now it’s for a whole different reason.

“I’ll be with you in just a second, Maggie,” Alex manages. She can’t shake the grin on her face the whole time she’s remaking M’gann’s breakfast. When she drops off the plate at her table, she shoots her a stern glare, complete with a whispered threat that, unfortunately, only makes M’gann laugh.

She slips back behind the counter, “What can I get you?”

“Coffee, please. And a vegan donut, if you have them,” she smirks. She still has five donuts on a plate covered in plastic wrap on her counter at home, but that’s beside the point.

Alex nods a little and calls over her shoulder toward the window to the kitchen, “Kar? Do we have any vegan donuts?”

“Yeah, they should be right—” the blonde, bubbly woman pops up, and Maggie smiles and gives her a small wave.

“Hey, Kara.”

“Maggie!” she beams. 

That kind of overfamiliarity usually bothers her, but she finds that from Kara it seems genuine, and she doesn’t mind it at all. She suddenly finds herself wrapped up in a hug quicker than she ever thought possible, but not before she hears someone else yell, “Kara, _no!”_

Seems like an odd thing to shout, but Kara jumps back immediately, and now Maggie knows why—her whole front is suddenly covered in chocolate icing.

Kara looks like she might cry, “I’m so sorry, Maggie! I forgot about my apron! Stupid…I shouldn’t have…I’m so sorry,” she whimpers.

Maggie is so, _so_ late, and she’s still trying to make a good impression at work, and now her shirt is sticky, and she doesn’t know if it’s better to show up at the bell with a chocolate-covered shirt, or be twenty minutes late and be clean. 

But she feels terrible about the way Kara looks. She hugs her again—because her shirt is already beyond hope, “It’s ok,” she pulls away and Kara looks less likely to cry, but still upset, “Never liked this shirt anyway,” she winks.

Kara laughs a little and mumbles something incoherent, but shuffles back to the kitchen like a puppy who was just busted for digging holes in the flowerbed.

Alex cannot believe what unfolded in front of her ten seconds ago. She’s standing there with a to-go cup of coffee and Maggie’s donut in a little paper bag, but she can’t form words. She’s knows Kara didn’t mean it, but there’s no way Maggie is going to ever walk back in here again.

Maggie looks up and sees Alex frozen in place and pale. She walks the few steps to close the gap between them, drops her voice low, and hopes to god that at least her charm will work in her favor today, “Um…I know we haven’t been on a date yet, but…” she eyes her up and down, cocks her head to the side, and flashes both dimples, “what are the chances I can get you out of that shirt?”

She blinks a few times to make sure she heard that correctly, but the heat pouring through her veins seems to be agreeing with her brain that she did not imagine the moment. 

Alex has no idea where the confidence comes from, but she finds herself grinning wickedly, as the thought that popped into her head slips easily off her tongue, “Depends. What are the chances you’ll still go out with me after you’ve seen me topless?”

Maggie gulps, “Oh. Uh…p-pretty girl—GOOD. I mean. Your chances are pretty _good_ ,” she stutters. She shuts her eyes tight and pretends like that went a lot better than it did. _So much for the charm_ …

When she opens them again, Alex is smiling and nods toward the stairs, then calls out, “Kara, you’re in charge!” 

Maggie follows sheepishly behind, back into the room from the night before.

Alex closes the door and flips the lock—even though there’s only a handful of people downstairs and none of them would ever come up here. She turns around and Maggie’s standing there uncomfortably, “I’m so sorry about all of this.”

Maggie shrugs, “It’s ok. She didn’t mean it. I was just running late today, but I really wanted to stop by, and now I’m _definitely_ going to be late. So I’m just…stressed…”

“Well I’ll hurry up so you won’t be late.” 

Alex unbuttons her shirt quickly, and normally she would turn around, or—in this particular instance—perhaps go a little slower, but one glance at her watch tells her there’s no time for coyness and games, because Maggie has about 15 minutes until the first bell rings and she’s officially late.

Taking her cue from Alex, Maggie unbuttons her shirt equally as quickly—although not so quickly that she doesn’t glance her way a couple times—and once, finds Alex glancing right back.

They laugh through it awkwardly and swap shirts, but as Maggie’s buttoning herself back up, she sees Alex kneeling down, “What are you doing?”

She flips open one of the boxes she dug through last night, because she remembers now that there was some kind of t-shirt in there, and maybe it’ll still fit her. Maggie’s shirt would be a little snug, but it’s also incredibly sticky and she thinks she would rather walk home topless than put it on. 

Alex sees the dark green t-shirt and shakes it out, now realizing that she’s sitting here in her bra, and Maggie is _definitely_ watching her. 

The blush creeps up her chest and her cheeks, and Maggie turns around quickly, “Sorry! I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have looked…” and she didn’t even see much, but she’s very aware that she would like to see so much more, but only if she was granted permission, and hopefully when she could take as much time as she liked.

Alex slips the Science Olympiad shirt on, and it’s a little wrinkled, but the gods of the early-2000s blessed—or maybe cursed—her high school self with a desire to wear t-shirts much larger than she needed, so it fits well enough that she can go out in public. 

She grabs Maggie’s arm gently, “Come on. You have twelve minutes to get to your office, and I _think_ I can get you to the school in five—but only if we hurry.”

She jumps at the offer, and runs down the stairs after Alex, because there is no way she was going to make it on time by herself. She thought she was still 15 minutes away.

Maggie tosses her keys to Alex, points to her car, and they both climb in. 

Alex seems to be concentrating hard, and Maggie doesn’t want to disrupt her focus, so she stays silent. She zig-zags through streets Maggie’s never been down, and some that she doesn’t even catch the name of before they’re turning down another side street.

She pulls up to the side of a building and Maggie tilts her head at her, “This is the high school?”

“Yeah? I…wait—you don’t know where this is, do you?”

Maggie shakes her head.

“Alright. Hurry up, I’ll show you.”

Alex hops out and Maggie follows behind, and it’s not until she pulls the door open that Maggie realizes, “Wait—I can’t leave my car there, can I?”

She grins, “No, but I’ll move it and bring your keys back. Now come _on_!”

She hurries down the hall and past the vocational classrooms—construction, automotive, cosmetology—and she pushes through waves of students moving at a glacial pace, and finds that even 15 years removed from high school, she still loathes slow walkers.

She swings open a door and Maggie finds herself inside the auditorium. Alex is running up the stairs, and Maggie stops, “Where are we going? My office is on the first floor!”

Alex spins with this mischievous glint in her eye, and a smirk on her face, “I know. But this is faster. Don’t you trust me?”

Maggie does. She doesn’t know why, exactly, but she does. She rolls her eyes a little and runs up the stairs. This is definitely more cardio than she planned.

Alex cuts through the computer lab, and pushes Maggie through a door that she knows connects it to the second floor of the library, then runs through the empty stacks, down another set of stairs, and past the students slowly filing in for study hall. 

When they emerge in the hallway again, she points to the door to her right.

Maggie gapes, “How the hell did we get here so fast?”

She shrugs, “Go on, Sawyer. I’ll be back with your keys in a bit.”

Alex disappears in the throng of students, and Maggie walks through the office in half a daze. She waves absently at the secretary, then closes her office door behind her, plops down at her desk, and tries to catch her breath. 

Her phone lights up a few minutes later: _Ok. A little more than a bit. You left your coffee and donut at the shop. I’ll be back in ten minutes._

Maggie beams. She can’t believe Alex remembered her breakfast, especially after she had long-forgotten it: _No rush. I’ll be here all day._

Then after a second she adds: _Please drive the speed limit._

Alex is already pulling up to the front door of the coffee shop. She puts the car in park and smirks: _Well that’s no fun.. ;)_

_…_

When she gets back to the high school, she parks Maggie’s car in the teacher’s lot and carries her coffee and donut back inside the now-quiet building. It’s the middle of first period, and now the hallways are empty. 

She smiles at the older woman who’s sitting at the door watching for students without hall passes or kids trying to sneak out—and with a little wave, she’s free to make her way back to the main office unescorted. 

The secretary is on the phone, but nods her approval when Alex points toward Maggie’s office. She takes a few steps down the hall, but the door is closed. Before she can knock, a deep voice echoes from behind her, “Ms. Danvers? What are you doing here?”

She turns slowly on the spot to see the principal looming ahead in his dark grey suit, his large arms folded across his chest, and staring down at her. She puts the coffee and donut on the secretary’s desk, and as she gets closer, his arms unfold and reach out to wrap her in a hug. She hugs him tight, “Hey, J’onn.”

Maggie heard his voice through her closed door, and she hurried to open it so she explain why Alex was on school property for no reason other than to bring her a donut. But now she’s leaning against her doorframe, and she’s _so_ confused.

Principal J’onzz straightens his jacket and eyes Alex with a grin, “Science Olympiad?”

She laughs, “Long story.”

He gestures to the hall behind her and she turns to see Maggie leaning against the door to her office, looking perplexed, “Gotta go. See you at dinner?”

“Wouldn’t miss it,” he winks.

Alex grabs the coffee and donut, and Maggie backs up to let her in the office, closing the door behind them. 

They sit on opposite sides of the desk, and Alex hands over Maggie’s keys, her coffee, and the paper bag. Maggie just stares, “Ok…are you going to explain any of what happened this morning, like…at all?”

She wants to, but she doesn’t know if there’s time enough for the whole story right this second. She hopes she sounds as sincere as she feels, “I’ll tell you what, let me take you out on a proper date, and I will tell you whatever you want to know.”

Maggie raises her eyebrows, and Alex blushes, “Ok, that came out wrong—I’ll tell you whatever you want to know about _this morning_ ,” she amends.

She liked the first offer better, but she’ll take what she can get, “Deal. Tomorrow night?”

Alex nods, “Sounds perfect. I’ll see you then.”

…

“Ok, but can you promise not to turn it into a fight? _Please_ , Alex?”

She had no intention of fighting, but sometimes even when she doesn’t mean to, it still happens, “There’s nothing to fight about, Kara. I promise. I just…I’m curious. Ok?”

Kara nods, “Ok.”

They walk through the front door of the little grey house, and Alex looks around, “Mom?”

“Girls? In here!” 

Kara puts the coffee cake she brought on the dining room table, and Eliza appears a few seconds later with a spatula in her hand, “Dinner’s almost ready.” 

She sees the cake on the table and hugs Kara, “That looks amazing, sweetheart.”

Kara hugs her tight, “Thanks, Eliza.”

Then she hugs her eldest daughter, “Hi, honey.”

“Hey Mom,” Alex grins. She lets herself be held and breathe in that familiar scent of home for just a second before she pulls away, “What’s for dinner? It smells amazing.”

“Oh…lasagna? I hope that’s ok. It was J’onn’s turn to pick…” she apologizes.

Alex laughs, “It’s fine. We should really expect it by now.”

She grins, “Probably.”

Both sisters follow their mom back into the kitchen, and Alex takes over cutting up vegetables for a salad, while Kara brings down a stack of plates from the cabinet. 

Eliza is putting garlic bread in the oven, “So how did the big event go?”

Kara beams, “Really great! A bunch of kids came, and they all loved my donuts, and—” but when Alex eyes her mom curiously, Kara gets nervous, “Uh…I’m gonna go set the table, actually. They should be here soon…”

Eliza looks confused at the change in tone, and Alex leans back against the counter, “You sent her to me, didn’t you?”

Her mom laughs, “I didn’t _send her_ to you, I merely made a suggestion.”

“Uh- _huh_. Sure you did.”

Eliza wipes her hands on a towel, then puts them both on her daughter’s shoulders, “Alex, she had a list of nearly every business in town. She was so determined. But you and I know most of those places aren’t going to do anything. So…I _suggested_ she try you first.”

Alex softens slightly, but says nothing. She’s not mad about it—all things considered, Maggie Sawyer turning up is the best thing that’s happened to her in a while—she just wished she would’ve given her a heads up. 

Although…Alex almost definitely would’ve locked the door that day, and none of it would’ve happened at all.

Her mom goes back to check the oven, half-heartedly trying to defend herself, “Besides, you’re probably about the same age, and I figured it couldn’t hurt for her to maybe make a friend along the way. I didn’t say that, of course.”

“More like _girl_ friend,” Kara snickers from the doorway.

Alex immediately jumps from her place at the counter and chases her sister through the house as she shrieks and giggles, “You are so dead, Kara!”

“Girls!” Eliza shouts, “Girls, come on! You are _adults_!”

They both reappear a few minutes later, with Alex half-shoving Kara into the kitchen, both of her arms wrapped around her so tightly that her little sister can’t move her own, “ _Alexxx_ ,” she whines.

Eliza sighs, “Alex? Seriously?”

Alex lets go and puts her hands up in innocence—but there’s nothing innocent about the look on her face. She backs out of the kitchen to go to the door that just opened in the front of the house.

A deep voice calls out, “Eliza?”

Alex greets him first, “Hey J’onn!”

Kara huffs, and Eliza shakes her head—and tries not to laugh. Alex pulled both of Kara’s sweatshirt sleeves around her waist, and tied them behind her back, and now Kara is stuck in the makeshift straightjacket. 

“One day, I’m gonna get her back,” she pouts.

Eliza unties her and kisses her cheek while she wriggles her arms back in their sleeves, “Maybe you should just stop teasing her…”

Kara grins, “Nah. That’s no fun.”

…

Dinner is as it always is. The conversation is easy and endless, and occasionally J’onn and Eliza get sucked into a tangent on something that happened at the school, and occasionally Kara, Alex and M’gann have their own side conversation about the latest episodes of their favorite shows—but it’s home and it’s family and it’s become something of a tradition, their Friday night dinners.

Somewhere around nine o’clock, J’onn and M’gann head home, and Kara is already asleep on the couch, so Alex helps her mom clean up the last of the mess in the kitchen.

“Can I ask?” 

She looks to her mom, and a grin sneaks across her face without her permission, “ _Yes_ , mom…you can ask…”

Eliza smiles, “Where are you taking her?”

“I don’t know yet.”

“But the study session went well? I really did think it was a great idea. And I think your place is perfect for it.”

“Yeah,” Alex considers that, “it did go pretty well. I even got to dust off some of my calculus knowledge.”

Her mom laughs lightly, “How much did you remember?”

“More than I thought I did,” she laughs.

Eliza thought that might be the case, but she doesn’t broach the subject. She knows how touchy it is, “And you like her?”

She rolls her eyes a little, “Yeah, mom. I like her.”

“I like her too,” she nods.

Alex shuts the dishwasher and flips it on, “Oh yeah? You wanna take her out?” she teases.

Eliza wraps her daughter up in a hug, and grins when she feels Alex’s arms hug her back, “No. I do not. But I hope you have fun.”

…

Maggie almost considers going to the coffee shop on Saturday morning, but she still has three donuts on her counter, and she’s nervous about seeing Alex tonight in a much different setting, and doesn’t know how those nerves will translate if she sees her this morning too. She’ll probably spill coffee all over herself. 

Instead she spends all morning burying herself in paperwork and her students ever-changing class schedules, and then all afternoon she takes her time getting ready for her date.

Alex shows up at 7, as planned. Her heart is working overtime, and she’s already blushing, and she’s willing her hands not to sweat and shake and drop the box she’s holding on the floor. 

When Maggie pulls open her door and Alex sees her standing there, her throat goes dry. She told her they weren’t going anywhere fancy, but she’s in a blouse, and a leather jacket, and these tight black jeans that are doing incredible things for both Maggie’s body and Alex’s imagination.

She grips the box in her hands so tightly to keep from dropping it, that she nearly crushes it instead, “Uh…most people bring flowers, but…this is kind of what we do…” she shrugs.

Maggie peels her eyes from Alex’s body in the sweater and jeans that are much nicer than anything she’s seen her wear thus far. She takes the box carefully and peeks inside, half-expecting more donuts. 

She would never say anything, of course, but she’s grateful when she sees chocolate chip cookies instead, “Thank you!”

“Kara’s still working on her vegan recipes—but even I have to admit, these are pretty good.”

Maggie puts the box on the counter, and smirks, “You stealing my cookies, Alex?”

Some of the tension leaves her body as she laughs, “I had to test them and make sure they were ok!”

Maggie shuts the door and they’re both standing in the hall a little awkwardly. Alex looks down at her hands, and the butterflies in her stomach start swirling, “Um…may I?”

She answers by taking Alex’s hand in her own—and it’s just as soft and fits just as perfectly as it did the other night—and her heart leaps, “Lead the way.”

…

They walk to a restaurant not far from the coffee shop. One where Alex knows the food will be good and the place will be crowded enough that they can have some privacy, but not so crowded that they have to shout at each other. 

She called the owner ahead of time—a older guy she’s known almost her entire life—and he saved them the booth in the back corner.

They sit and order drinks, then their meals, and the waiter brings them a little basket of bread. Alex takes a piece just so she has something to do with her hands.

Maggie is nervous, but it seems like Alex is too, so she goes first, “So…I’ve been thinking about yesterday morning.”

That piques her interest, “Oh yeah?”

“Yes. And I have three questions.”

Alex grins, “Only three? Should be a short date.”

Maggie laughs, and it’s quickly becoming one of Alex’s favorite sights and sounds. 

“Alright, I have more than three, but I thought it was a good place to start.”

Alex nods, “Ok. Shoot.”

She holds up one finger, “Number one, Alex _Danvers_ …” the way she emphasizes her last name makes her guess where this is going, and a second later, she finds she’s correct. 

“Any relation to Dr. Danvers? The woman in charge of our Science Department, and oh…I don’t know…the same teacher who pointed me in the direction of the coffee shop in the first place?”

“That would be my mother…” she winces, “Is that a total buzzkill?”

Maggie smiles, “Surprisingly, no.” 

That’s actually true. Dr. Danvers was one of the few teachers who went out of her way to welcome Maggie to the school, and even though they’d only interacted a couple times, she liked her, “Although I feel like that answers the next two questions I have.”

Alex tilts her head, “Ask away…”

“Ok…Two: how you knew all the shortcuts through the school?”

She smiles, “Oh. Yeah, I practically grew up in it—and then I went there, of course.”

That wasn’t far from what Maggie had assumed, but she’ll ask the last question too, “And three: how you knew Principal J’onzz so…intimately.”

Alex gags at that word, “Ok—you can never, ever use that word in a sentence with me, and him, ever again.” 

Maggie snorts, and nearly spits out her wine, “Ok, ok—noted.”

“By the way, you will never hear me call him that either, unless it’s dripping with sarcasm. J’onn was my dad’s best friend.” 

“Oh, gross,” Maggie mutters.

Alex cocks her head, both curious and amused.

“No, no, not gross—like _he’s_ not gross, but now I see why…my word choice…that would be gross, for you,” she sighs, “Did you understand any of that?”

“I did,” she laughs. 

Alex realizes she’s going to have to give at least a short version of this story or it won’t really make sense to Maggie, “My parents were high school sweethearts, and then high school science teachers—he taught astronomy and physics, and she taught—well, teaches—biology and chemistry. J’onn was a history teacher before he was the vice principal, and now, the principal. So he was always like an uncle to me, and later, a father figure—”

The last part slips out, and she can’t take it back.

Maggie freezes at the last half of that sentence. She heard the past tense, and remembers her saying “my mom’s house” and she now wonders again about Alex’s dad. She’s not going to ask the question though. Not on their first date.

Alex looks up and swallows hard, and Maggie tries to make her face as kind and understanding as she can. She reaches out and takes Alex’s hand, and it’s trembling. 

Guilt eats away at her stomach, “Sorry, Alex. No more questions. Your turn.”

She takes a deep breath. It’s been nearly 20 years—but because she hardly left her hometown, she’s rarely had to explain her dad’s death. It hurts more than she thought it would. With Maggie’s hand in hers though, the trembling stops almost immediately. 

When she meets her gaze again, Maggie’s still looking at her kindly, but Alex can see the question she’s now too afraid to ask. She squeezes her hand, “My dad died in a car accident when I was 16.”

Maggie tries not to let her jaw drop at the blunt statement, but it takes a lot of effort. She wasn’t going to ask, and she certainly did not expect Alex to tell her now.

“Alex, I’m so sorry,” is all she can think to say.

“Thanks,” and oddly, she feels better with it out in the open.

The waiter brings their food and doesn’t stay long, seemingly aware that he interrupted something he does not want to be in the middle of.

Alex squeezes Maggie’s hand before she lets go to grab her silverware, and when Maggie looks up, she’s grinning again, “How about less serious questions now, please?”

Maggie laughs, “Yes, _yes…_ because there is a lot of drama to unpack here,” she gestures only to herself, and Alex laughs genuinely, “but I really don’t think you’re ready for all that yet.”

She shakes her head slightly, “God, Sawyer, save some mystery for Date #2.”

Maggie’s stomach does a little backflip, and she tilts her chin—knowing that the way she’s grinning makes her look like an idiot, but she doesn’t care, “So there’s a Date #2?”

Alex arches an eyebrow, “Well, you’ve already seen me topless…”

Before she can even pull a memory of exactly how good Alex Danvers looked topless, she notices her face fall and movement out of the corner of her eye.

The young waiter is standing there with a pitcher of water, but now he’s unsure if he should stay or leave or quit entirely—and the way his eyes are bugging out of his head while staring pointedly at the place on the table between both of their plates, Maggie’s pretty sure he’s also now picturing Alex topless.

She snorts out a laugh, and that makes Alex laugh, and the kid turns a brilliant shade of red before refilling neither of their glasses and retreating to the kitchen.

“God I hope that’s not one of my students…” Maggie groans.

That makes Alex laugh harder.

…

The rest of the night goes well, as far as Maggie can tell. They talk about a lot of things—and some important things—and even though they promised lighter conversation, they somehow find themselves speaking honestly about how they came to be the women they were now.

Alex tells her that she was—and Kara would say, still is—a science nerd like her parents, but that it lost something after her dad died. She stuck with it through college, but when her sister wanted to open a bakery, she jumped in to help out and found herself never leaving. 

“Do you miss the science stuff?”

She thought about it for a long time before reaching her conclusion, “Sometimes? I liked the challenge, but I don’t know if it would’ve made me happy.”

“And you’re happy now?”

Alex smirked, “This particular instant? Definitely. But overall?” she considers it, “…still yes.”

Maggie told Alex that she grew up in Nebraska, and that her parents kicked her out when she was 14 for being gay. She told her how she moved in with her aunt, and put herself through college, and somewhere along the way decided she wanted to help kids the way she was never helped at that age.

That made more than a few things click for Alex—how Maggie talked to her students, how she always seemed to approach others with a kindness that Alex had never really seen before, how after moving to a new city, her first instinct was going door-to-door, on a mission to help kids she didn’t even know.

“And what about you?”

“What about me?”

Alex tilted her head a little, “Are you happy?”

“Um…I think so, yeah. I wish I could stay in one place a little longer and make a real difference, you know? The other schools I’ve been to, I tried. But sometimes I wonder if everything I did was erased as soon as I left.”

“Why not stay longer?”

It was a question she’s surprised Alex asked, considering her mom is a teacher, “No choice. Budget cuts came down from above, and I was always the newest counselor, so…”

“So you were first to go,” Alex finished. 

Maggie nodded.

“Well, I hope you stick around here longer—but I can tell you right now, you’re already making a real difference.”

She blushes at the compliment, “For my students, or…?”

It’s Alex’s turn to blush, “Maybe a few others.”

…

Now they’re walking back to Maggie’s apartment, and Alex is pointing out who lives or has lived in nearly every single house that they pass, and where she broke her arm riding on the neighbor’s pegs, and which spots were best for street hockey, and which neighbors would let the kids run across the yards, and which ones would keep any stray baseballs that accidentally went over the fence.

Maggie’s half-listening, but she mostly keeps looking over to see how Alex’s hands wave around when she gets excited, and how the moonlight looks in her eyes and on her skin, and she finds herself at her own apartment much too quickly for her liking.

Alex walks her up to the second floor, but takes a step back when Maggie unlocks her door. 

She’s been rambling nonstop to distract herself the dizzying combination of the smell of Maggie’s shampoo or perfume or body lotion—she can’t figure out where it’s coming from, exactly—mixed with the heat radiating off her skin as they walked side by side.

“Do you want to come in?”

She does, she really, _really_ does—but Alex knows it’s late. She tries to sneak a glance at her watch but Maggie catches her, “It’s too late, isn’t it?”

Alex’s stomach drops and it takes a lot of willpower to speak without whining, “I don’t even want to go to work tomorrow…”

Maggie laughs as Alex crosses her arms. She reaches out and pulls her a little closer, skimming her fingers up and down the backs of Alex’s arms, “You have to go to work tomorrow, otherwise you’re going to have at least one _very_ unsatisfied customer.”

Alex would like to add that she is _also_ going to be very unsatisfied, but she’s mesmerized by Maggie’s soft smile, and the way she’s running her hands slowly up and down her arms, and it sends the best kind of feeling straight through her core. 

She acts on that feeling, uncrossing her arms and cupping Maggie’s face. She waits half a second, to make sure she doesn’t want to pull away before she kisses her—and it’s so much better than she was expecting.

Maggie melts into Alex’s lips, and she tastes like red wine and the tiramisu Maggie insisted on ordering for dessert—even after Alex swore Kara’s was better. 

Right now, Maggie’s not sure she’s ever tasted anything better in her life. 

Alex pulls away first, and she’s a little nervous about how intensely she feels that loss of contact. She pushes a bit of Maggie’s hair away from her face, and it’s a monumental effort to take her hands off of her, “I…uh…I should go,” she whispers.

Maggie knows she has a good reason to leave, but she hates that she has to do it, “Monday?”

Alex blinks, “Huh?”

“Date #2. Can I take you out on Monday?”

She blushes and runs a hand through her hair, “Yeah. It’s my day off, so that sounds perfect.”

Maggie watches her go, a little thankful she’s not the one who has to be up early—because there is no way her body is going to stop buzzing long enough to let her sleep tonight.

…

For two weeks, Maggie comes in every morning for a vegan donut and a coffee, and after their fourth actual date, they start ending those mornings with goodbye kisses over the counter.

After five days straight, Kara finally stops squealing every time Maggie leaves.

Both weeks, the number of students that show up on Thursday nights increases, and after the last one, Alex doesn’t know how she’s going to fit more students in the building or afford to provide enough food to feed them.

She stresses over it more than she probably should, but then that weekend is a three-day weekend for the schools, so both her and Maggie have Monday off. 

On Sunday, she stops thinking, stops stressing, and stays up way past her self-imposed bed time—reveling in the opportunity to memorize every inch of skin of the woman she is falling head-over-heels for.

Maggie gladly returns the favor.

…

On Monday morning, Maggie wakes up first in the apartment that’s becoming more familiar each day. She blinks awake to find herself staring at Alex’s collarbone, and plants a soft kiss there before nuzzling further into her neck, and closing her eyes again.

Alex feels the kiss, and the warmth on her neck and under her arms and pressed against her chest…and she doesn’t want to move from this spot—not ever. 

When they wake up the second time, the sun is streaming through the blinds. Alex’s stomach grumbles and Maggie grins against her shoulder, “Maybe we have to actually get up…”

Alex just pulls her in tighter, “The human body can go nearly three weeks without food.”

Maggie rolls her eyes, “You really are such a nerd, Al,” she laughs.

“You like it.”

She does. Alex still refuses to open her eyes, so Maggie starts dropping kisses on her eyelids, her nose, her cheeks, until she has to open them so she can pull Maggie’s face close and find her lips.

Every kiss leaves her lips tingling and her whole body wanting more, “How about I make _you_ breakfast, for a change?”

Alex props herself up on her elbow, “Really?”

Maggie nods emphatically.

“Can we eat in bed?”

She laughs and kisses Alex again, “You know this is your bed, right?”

That gives her the biggest grin, “Then we can _definitely_ eat breakfast in bed!”

Maggie rolls over to sit on the side of the bed, sees her date night outfit abandoned on the floor, and turns over her shoulder, “Do you have a t-shirt I can wear? I feel like my blouse is a _little_ formal for breakfast in bed…”

Alex reaches out and traces a finger down her spine, “I think you’re dressed perfectly right now.”

She rolls her eyes but grins, “Maybe not the best idea around the stove…”

“Fair enough,” Alex concedes, “Second drawer on your left.”

Maggie pulls open the dresser and almost makes a joke about this just being full of Alex’s work uniform, but there’s a dark green t-shirt tucked in there that catches her eye. She slips it on, and she can hear Alex laughing before she even turns around.

“You _would_ pick that one.”

Maggie looks down at the Science Olympiad shirt and beams, “Is this what it feels like to be a huge nerd in high school? ‘Cause I wouldn’t know…”

Alex sits up suddenly and grabs her waist, pulling her back onto the bed, and pinning her down carefully underneath her. When her giggles subside, Alex laces her fingers through Maggie’s above her head, “You know…you should be grateful that I was a nerd in high school.”

Maggie’s eyes go wide at the way Alex has her pinned down and is straddling her waist, and she loves every second of it, “Oh yeah? And why’s that?”

Alex drops her voice low, and peppers kisses along Maggie’s jaw and neck and throat between her words, thanking her nerdy brain that remembered exactly which spots got the best reactions last night, “Because I aced biology…and anatomy…” and she can feel Maggie’s body writhe underneath her own, “and I think that makes you pretty damn lucky, Sawyer.”

Maggie doesn’t even bother attempting a witty retort.

…

They actually end up eating breakfast at the table, because Maggie doesn’t trust herself to balance coffee and a plate on her lap—and Alex would much rather be by Maggie’s side than eat breakfast alone in her bed.

Maggie sips on her coffee, and sees Alex’s brow furrowed as she’s staring absently out the window. 

“What’s up, Alex?”

“Huh?” she blinks out of her trance, “Nothing. Just…thinking.”

“About what?”

Alex bites her cheek. The truth is, she was thinking about those overcrowded study nights and how she can possibly make them work better for the students, and for her business. She doesn’t know how to say that to Maggie without sounding like it’s become a problem.

When she doesn’t answer, Maggie feels her stomach sink, “Is it…about us?”

That snaps her out of her thoughts very quickly, “No! No, no—that’s not it. Not at all, Maggie,” then she hesitates, “Wait, are you…thinking…are we—are we ok?”

Maggie relaxes and kisses her, “We’re so good, Alex.”

“Ok, good. I’m—yeah—same here,” she breathes.

Maggie gently traces the lines on Alex’s forehead with her finger, where her brow is still slightly furrowed, and her mind clearly thinking about something, “So why the look?”

Alex thought she was better at hiding her worry, until Maggie’s touch made her relax muscles she didn’t even know were tense, “Right…ok. Um…it’s the study nights,” she says carefully.

She tries not to jump to conclusions, “What about them?”

“Well, they’re working—obviously. And I love that. And I love that more students keep coming, but I…I don’t know where we’re going to keep putting them, and I…”

Maggie had wondered if this was ever going to come up, “And you keep feeding  20+ kids for free every week? And then the other night, they asked you if they could come in a couple times a week now.”

Alex feels her shoulders relax. So Maggie noticed too, “Yeah. I don’t want to stop doing it—I like having them—but I just, I don’t know how to keep up with it.”

She stands up and kisses Alex’s temple, “Ok…so why don’t we brainstorm?”

“Brainstorm?”

Maggie walks back into the kitchen to refill their coffee mugs, “Yeah. I’m sure we can think of something.”

When she turns around Alex is staring at her—well not at her, exactly—but at the Science Olympiad shirt she’s still wearing. Maggie smirks, “Eyes up here, Al.”

Alex nearly chokes, “Right, right. My bad…” she laughs, “Actually, I think you just gave me an idea.”

“My boobs gave you an idea?” Maggie laughs, “That is…a new one, I have to admit.”

They actually gave Alex quite a few ideas, some of which she will have to run by Maggie later. Instead she frowns, “There is a huge downside to this idea though…”

Maggie narrows her eyes, “What?”

“We’re going to have to get dressed.”

…

When they pull up to the fancy skyscraper downtown, Maggie gulps, “Ok—I know you said we had to get dressed, but you could’ve warned me we were coming _here_ , and I probably would’ve taken off the Science Olympiad t-shirt.”

Alex grins, “I like it on you. Plus, it’s from 9th grade, so it’s probably the smallest shirt I own.”

Maggie gets out of the car and glares, “You know I’m _maybe_ an inch and a half shorter than you, right? I’m not that small.”

She does. She also still thinks of her as small and adorable and someone she will protect at all costs, “Doesn’t matter,” she shrugs, “Smaller is smaller.”

Maggie rolls her eyes, but her frustration disappears entirely when Alex kisses her cheek and takes her hand, to lead her inside.

She’s in awe of how confidently Alex strolls right up to the huge security guard at the front desk. All she says is, “Alex Danvers,” and he nods curtly, skims through a short list, checks something off, and hands them an ID card.

Maggie notices the ID card doesn’t say _Guest_ —it has Alex’s picture on it, “I have so many questions right now.”

Alex squeezes her hand a little tighter, “Later.”

They go up to the top floor and walk down the large, exquisite hallway that is fancier than any room Maggie’s ever been in. She wraps her free arm around her stomach, trying like hell to hide the old t-shirt that she never thought she’d regret wearing, but now finds she cannot stop focusing on. At least her jacket covers most of it.

The young receptionist at the end of the hall smiles sweetly at them, “She’s on a conference call, but you can go in. They should be done soon.”

“Thanks.”

And without hesitation, Alex pulls open the large door and tugs Maggie inside. This office is much nicer than the hallway, and Maggie is sure _this_ is now the fanciest room she’s ever been in.

It’s white and pristine, and there’s a wall with three, large, incredible photos that Maggie thinks should be in a museum of some sort. The desk is sleek and modern, and every bookshelf looks immaculate and orderly and like dust wouldn’t dare land on anything that graces it’s shelves.

“Alex Danvers…” a voice drawls.

Her head whips around to see a young woman with dark hair and green eyes, wearing a tight blue dress that looks incredibly uncomfortable, but somehow, she doesn’t seem bothered by at all. 

She’s sitting in a corner of the office Maggie hadn’t noticed yet—where there’s a couch and chair and coffee table, with something that looks a lot like a plate of the donuts Maggie’s been eating for almost three weeks. 

Her heels are scattered under the coffee table, and she holds a finger up at them, pushing a button on the phone that she now realizes someone is still babbling through, “Sounds great, I’ll call you tomorrow to go over the details.”

Without a goodbye, she hangs up the phone and crosses the room barefoot, immediately wrapping Alex in a hug. Maggie wonders if she’s hallucinating. 

“Hey, Lena,” and it’s a comfortable hello, like she’s said it 1000 times before and they’re standing inside Alex’s apartment—not a Fortune 500 corporation.

When Alex pulls away, she loops her arm around Maggie’s waist, “Lena, this is my girlfriend, Maggie.”

They shake hands and Maggie is still so very confused, “Nice to finally put a face to the name,” she smirks.

Alex blushes a little, “Right. And Maggie, this is Lena Luthor.”

The first thought that pops into her head is _no shit_ , but she’s so stunned that they’re standing in the office of the youngest billionaire in the country, that she can’t actually say anything. 

Lena must get this reaction a lot, because she doesn’t seem bothered. She just walks back toward the couch and they follow, “Well come in! Sit. Stay a while. Have a donut. Maggie? Have you had the donuts from Alex’s coffee shop? They’re amazing.”

“I—I have…” she manages.

Alex peers at the plate, and then laughs as she takes a seat next to Lena and Maggie sits on her other side, “You can actually thank her for those,” she grins. She looks sweetly at Maggie and then back at Lena, “Maggie’s the reason we have vegan anything.”

Lena’s eyebrows go up, and Maggie tries not to blush, “Well, a thank you is definitely in order. I’ve been trying to talk her into it for almost a year, but I guess I didn’t have the right approach…”

Alex slaps her leg for the insinuation, “Oh my god, _stop it._ You wanted gluten-free vegan donuts and I still don’t know how that’s even possible.”

“But you’re already halfway there!” she laughs.

Once the friendly banter subsides, Alex tries to remember the way she was going to ask her question. But Lena’s the only best friend she’s got—besides Kara—so she doesn’t care so much about the semantics, “So, the reason for my visit this fine afternoon, is that I was wondering if you were still looking for a way to help out the local communities?”

Lena tilts her head, “I mean, we’re always looking—if the offer’s right.”

“How about an offer to help out local high school kids with safe spaces to study?”

She raises an eyebrow, “Like…the library?”

Alex sighs, but Maggie snorts—she can’t help it. Both women look at her, and she blushes slightly, “Sorry! Sorry…that’s just…that’s exactly what Alex said too. That was perfect.”

Alex rolls her eyes, and Lena grins, “So _not_ the library?”

“You explain it, Mags.”

So she does. She explains how the students need to have a place to go after school, a place to study, but also to unwind and relax and not worry about what they have to go back home to for a little while. 

Now that they’ve done it for a couple weeks, she tells Lena about the test score improvements, and how less kids are ending up in detention, and how now they’re now running out of space for all the students who want to show up.

“It all sounds amazing—and a great idea, Maggie, truly. Do you have any budget or cost projections?”

Maggie blinks. No, of course not. She was half-naked when Alex got the idea, and then they rushed downtown. 

“Yeah, I have a few things,” Alex says easily, “Let me forward them to you.”

She hadn’t shared with Maggie that she’s been working on this for weeks, trying to come up with a solution that didn’t leave her with a profit loss. She shrugs, “Sorry. I’ve been thinking about this for a while.”

Maggie had been too, but clearly not in as much detail. She shoves her shoulder, “Nerd.”

Lena barks out a laugh, and Maggie wonders if she shouldn’t have said that, but Alex is shoving Lena now too, “Shut up, Luthor. You’re a bigger nerd than I ever was.”

She stands and walks toward her desk to pick up her tablet and read whatever Alex has just sent over. An elaborate Excel spreadsheet pops up and she smirks, “Excuse me, but the color-coordination of this spreadsheet tells a different story.”

She flips it around so they can both see it, and Maggie laughs lightly too, “Oh my god, Al. You really are such a nerd.”

“I like things organized, ok!”

Suddenly a moment clicks in Maggie’s mind, and she covers her mouth to try and drown the giggles that are bubbling through her. Alex glares, “…what?”

“This morning,” she wheezes, “when I grabbed this shirt…no wonder it stood out.”

Something flashes in Alex’s eyes, “Sawyer…”

Lena is watching the back-and-forth, fully captivated, “Please share with Alex’s best friend whatever nerdy thing she does that you suddenly remembered. It’s vital to our relationship.”

But Maggie just met Lena and she’s not sure she can cross that line yet. She shakes her head and bites back her grin as best she can.

Alex rolls her eyes, “You already know, Lena. You lived with me for two years.”

That makes Maggie stop laughing immediately. 

Lena notices, “College roommates,” she clarifies.

Alex smacks her forehead lightly, “Oh my god. Sorry! Yes, we were roommates. Nothing else.”

”No...we were also Science Olympiad co-captains.”

Maggie looks down at her shirt and smirks.

She relaxes at the knowledge—not that she doesn’t know Alex dated other people, but still—she laughs as she says, “Your t-shirts were color-coordinated too.”

Lena laughs, and Maggie laughs, and eventually, even Alex laughs, “It’s just…easier…I have no excuse. I’m a nerd. I am. Everyone in this room is fully aware…”

Maggie kisses her softly, “I like it.”

…

Alex’s idea of going to Lena turns out to be a great idea—and an overwhelming one.

Because now what they were hoping was a little money to cover the cost of a few dozen donuts, is actually funding for a full-fledged _project_ that Alex was not expecting.

Lena Luthor does nothing half-assed.

After a few meetings, they decide to turn the upstairs rooms of the coffee shop into more space for the kids.

It’s Alex’s idea to keep all the old textbooks and school-related things as study materials, and Lena’s idea to donate a few computers for the kids to use, and Maggie’s idea to have the kids help with the clean-up and set-up—and Kara’s idea is to stay very enthusiastic about the whole thing, so she puts herself in charge of music selection and snack-providing on the day.

…

A few weeks later, they close the coffee shop for the weekend and get to work.

That first day is chaotic, to say the least. A dozen kids show up, plus Alex, Kara, Maggie, Lena, Eliza, J’onn, M’gann—and two other men—the first of which, Kara greets at the door with a puzzled look.

“Hey, I’m Winn. I’m supposed to be meeting Ms. Luthor?”

He juggles what looks like a box of wires into one hand so he can shake hers. 

Kara raises an eyebrow, “Kara. And uh…sure. Let me find her for you.”

She trudges through the boxes that are slowly taking over the dining area as he follows her around, and talks non-stop, “I’m a tech at L-Corp, well… _the_ tech, actually. Not to brag—but it’s sorta true. I put together the computers that we donated and then I volunteered to come by and set it all up for you guys.”

Kara turns around,  “I thought the students were supposed to set it up?”

“Oh! Right. They are. But I guess I wanted to oversee everything, make sure it’s all up and running properly, and…WOW. Are those raspberry danishes?”

They stop at the bottom of the stairs and she grins, “Apple raspberry, actually.”

He nearly drops the box of wires, and Kara catches it and helps him set it on the floor, “Did you make those?”

“Yeah! That’s my thing. My sister and I own the coffee shop, and I do all the baking. You can have one if you’d like!”

“Oh, um…ok. Thanks.” He takes one hesitantly, pops it in his mouth, and his eyes go wide, “Ok, Kara. This is _incredible_!”

“Thank you!” she beams.

“You know, I think we’re about to be best friends,” he grins.

She laughs, “Well, I could always use a new friend.” 

The bells on the door chime, and another—much taller—man is standing there looking confused. She points up the stairs, “Lena’s probably up there somewhere…” 

She almost goes to the door, but Maggie gets there first. She peels her eyes from the very handsome stranger, and follows her new best friend upstairs in search of Lena.

Maggie is holding few rolls of paper towels, when she sees an impossibly tall man standing at the door, “Hi. Can I help you?”

“I hope so. James Olsen.” 

The name sounds almost familiar, but she can’t quite place it, “Maggie Sawyer.”

They shake hands and he tugs his bag up further on his shoulder, “I’m with CatCo Magazine. I heard from a friend about what you guys are doing here, and I thought I might be able to come by and take some pictures—maybe work up a small editorial piece for our next issue?”

Maggie’s jaw drops, “CatCo? You came from CatCo for…for us?”

He smiles, “Yeah.”

She’s trying to put a logical sequence of events that would bring a journalist from one of the top media outlets to this small town, and to this much smaller event—but the only thing that makes any sense is that it had to come from Lena Luthor.

“Uh…ok. Well, we’re a little bit of a mess right now, as you can see,” she gestures around the room, “But let me get you either Alex or Kara Danvers—they own the place—and you can talk to them.”

“Jimmy! What are you doing here?”

Eliza strides through the dining room and wraps the guy in a hug, and Maggie is dumbfounded.

“Hey, Dr. Danvers. Clark called. Told me about what you guys were doing. I was hoping to take some pictures and share your story.”

Before Maggie can ask who Clark is, Alex appears at her side.

She looks up at the kid she hasn’t seen since she was probably 14 years old, “James?”

“Hey, Alex,” he wraps her in a hug too, but it’s slightly more awkward. Maggie wonders if she’s ever met him before, but clearly Eliza has. 

Alex was running through a mental checklist of sorts, and it takes her a few seconds to readjust to the situation in front of her, “James, this is my girlfriend, Maggie. Maggie, James is my cousin Clark’s best friend. I, uh…I can’t believe you’re here. Not that I mind—of course—but what are you doing here? I haven’t seen you in…a _very_ long time.”

He tilts his head at her, “Yeah, I think the last time I saw you, you were kicking Clark and I out of your treehouse,” he smirks.

Maggie wants to know so much more about that story, and hopefully see some kind of photographic evidence, but she just grins, “So a few weeks ago, then?”

That earns her laughs from everyone, and Alex’s arm around her waist, “Right. Last Tuesday, actually.”

He pulls a camera out of his bag, “Official business. And an extra set of hands, if you need it.”

Eliza looks around the room in it’s state of disarray, “I think we need it. Yes,” she laughs.

…

With the help of Alex’s dorky color-coordinated charts and extensive lists, everything starts to shift from chaos into a well-oiled machine. 

Eliza, Lena, M’gann and most of the students are in the dining room, sorting through boxes of donations they’ve collected at the school—and large donations from Lena, J’onn, and the Danvers’—and organizing them by subject. 

After the plan had come together to clear out the rooms, Alex had confided in Maggie that a lot of the stuff she was hanging onto was actually her dad’s. She also told her how much he would’ve liked knowing it was going back into the hands of students. 

It was the first time Maggie had seen her cry.

All morning she sneaks glances at her across the shop, checking in to see how she’s doing while trying not to draw any attention to the fact that she’s doing it in the first place.

But there are no cracks in her demeanor. She’s focused on putting everyone to work. 

Maggie and Kara are put in charge of building shelving units, J’onn and James quickly become the muscle—moving all of the furniture to it’s designated room—and Winn is flitting between two rooms, helping out the few students who wanted to learn how to build the computers.

The kids decided on two computer rooms, then one room for Math and Science, one for Arts, English, and Humanities, and one for History—because after J’onn showed up, they now had enough history books to fill a whole room of it’s own. 

They voted to keep the sixth room empty, only couches and chairs and nothing else. Maggie was impressed that a group of teenagers wanted a room free of distractions—and more impressed when one of her rowdier students clapped his hand on the back of the nervous freshman in glasses who shakily voiced the idea, and then suggested they should make that room free of cell phones too.

And that was the first time Alex saw _her_ cry.

Meanwhile, Alex is orchestrating this whole thing effortlessly, and Maggie can’t help but think how she was meant for something like this—something so much bigger than fixing toaster ovens and making espresso.

…

Later that morning, Maggie backtracks down the hall, and opens one of the doors, “Hey, Al—?” but the words die in her throat and her heart shatters at the sight in front of her: Alex, surrounded by boxes, eyes red and sobbing.

Kara’s kneeling at her side, and when she sees Maggie she gives her the smallest nod.

She hopes that means she’s allowed to come in.

Maggie has rarely seen Alex cry—and certainly not like this—so she’s still not quite sure what the best approach is. There’s not really anywhere for her to go, but her heart aches to wrap Alex up in her arms and take every bit of pain from her.

There’s a few inches of space between Alex’s back and the wall, and that’s probably the only place she can go. She sidesteps the piles of books scattered on the floor, and squeezes into the small space. 

But as she’s sliding down the wall, she has to use Alex’s shoulder to keep herself from falling over, and she laughs despite herself, “I know you think I’m very small babe, but this is gonna be a little tight.”

Alex manages the smallest laugh through her tears, but as soon as she feels Maggie’s body pressed against hers and her arms wrapped around her, she can’t hold herself together anymore. 

The tears spill down her cheeks, and she can feel Kara’s hand on her knee, and hear Maggie’s sweet nothings—and everythings—whispered in her ear, and none of them move for a long time.

When her tears finally subside, Maggie still doesn’t move. She wouldn’t dare, and she doesn’t want to, and even when she can hear someone calling her name down the hall, she doesn’t so much as flinch.

Kara does though. She squeezes Alex’s knee, and waits until Alex gives her a look that says she can go, and with a small, sad smile, she heads off to handle whatever situation is happening down the hallway.

Alex pushes the box further away from her so she can turn slowly and bury herself in Maggie’s chest, and is grateful that Maggie still keeps both arms around her. She tucks her head under Maggie’s chin, and breathes her in.

“Do you want to talk about it?” Maggie asks softly.

Alex shakes her head because she doesn’t trust her voice right now. She should talk about it. She should explain why one stupid report card in a room full of hundreds of books has made it impossible to breathe, to function, to move even a fraction from her place on the floor—but she can’t right now. She wants to, but she can’t.

Maggie kisses the top of her head, “Ok.”

Another few minutes ticks by, and Maggie wonders if Alex has fallen asleep, but she still doesn’t move. Her right arm is around her waist, and her left hand is on the top of her head, holding her against her chest, with Alex’s legs draped over her own.

The door creaks open slowly, and she turns her head to see Kara frowning. She shuts the door behind her and kneels at their side, looking only at her sister. 

It’s the only way Maggie knows Alex must still be awake.

Her voice is as soft as she can make it, “The pizza just got here, so we’re gonna take a break for lunch. I’ve got it all handled. I just wanted you to know, ok?”

“Thanks Kara,” she croaks. Her sister kisses her forehead and walks quietly back out of the room, shutting the door behind her.

Alex knows she can’t stay here forever, and now seems like as good a time as any to move. She reluctantly pulls herself from Maggie’s embrace and wipes her face, even though her tears dried a long time ago.

Maggie brushes the hair back from her face and is looking at her so tenderly, Alex wants to cry again.

“Can I do anything? Or get you anything?”

“No…no,” she whispers, “This was…enough. It was perfect. Thank you.”

Maggie kisses her quickly, but waits for Alex’s lead on what she should do next.

“It was…um…it’s stupid, but—” she hands over a crumpled and faded piece of paper, and Maggie takes it carefully, and turns it over in her hands. 

It’s a progress report, and according to the type at the top, it’s Alex’s from 9th grade. She skims through it, not really sure what she’s supposed to be looking for, but unsurprised to see A+ after A+ in a neat row, except for one C-: Geometry.

Maggie looks up and Alex is smiling softly, “That was the year we built that treehouse James talked about. I had never struggled in math or science before, but for some reason, I couldn’t grasp geometry. I hated it. 

“Then one day, my dad was out in the backyard with a pile of wood and a box of nails and a saw—and he was not exactly the handy type, you know? But there he was.

“I thought it was dumb. I thought treehouses were for kids—and at fourteen, I was _definitely_ not a kid anymore.”

Maggie laughs at that, and Alex does too, “Right. I’m sure you hear that a lot.”

She presses a small kiss to Alex’s temple, “Sounds familiar, yeah.”

“After two weeks, I had a treehouse with a telescope and a tire swing, and I never wanted to leave it. But when my report card came, I also had an A+ in geometry. I don’t even remember learning anything, specifically. I don’t remember him telling me about surface areas or diameters—but I learned it. Somehow…” she sighs, “that’s just the kind of teacher he was.”

That might be Maggie’s new favorite story about Alex. She can’t decide. Every one was something she cherished, but this one feels special, feels intimate—like Alex trusted her with a piece of her soul. 

So she puts her hands gently on Alex’s cheeks, and says the thing that’s been on the tip of her tongue for weeks, “I love you, Alex.”

She gasps slightly. She was not expecting that. She loves Maggie too. She has for a while, she knows. But sitting here, dirty and sweaty and her face red and puffy—it’s both totally unexpected and incredibly perfect, “I love you too, Maggie.”

That kiss sets her whole body on fire, and Maggie never wants to let her go, but Alex pulls away suddenly and tilts her chin. Maggie’s confused, “What?”

She swipes her thumb across Maggie’s cheek and the way she’s looking at her, she wonders if she even knows she’s crying, “Are you ok?”

Maggie had no idea she was crying, but it fits with the overwhelming feelings that are flooding her body. Luckily Alex doesn’t seem put off by it all, she just looks concerned—and Maggie loves her more for it, “So good, Al.”

She kisses her again, and neither of them comes up for air until the door creaks and a startled voice mumbles, “Oh my god, sorry. I’m sorry! Uh…I’m not looking, I promise—but if you guys don’t come down soon, Kara is going to eat all the pizza.”

Alex grabs a small notebook from her side and chucks it at the door, “Lena! What kind of best friend are you?! Go save us some!”

…

By the end of Saturday, they’re all beyond exhausted—but when Sunday morning rolls around, every single one of them is back—plus another 10 students who couldn’t make it the day before.

There’s a new and amazing electricity every time Maggie is nearby, and Alex feels her presence and her gaze down to her core, and through her veins, and all the way to her fingertips.

Maggie can’t stop watching her. The woman who loves her—who _loves her._ She can’t stop thinking about it, and it knocked the wind out of her the three other times Alex had said it between last night and this morning.

Kara stands in the middle of the kitchen staring between her sister and her sister’s girlfriend, and she can’t tell exactly what’s different, but something definitely is. She’s determined to get to the bottom of it.

But then James Olsen walks in and she’s forgets about her sister and finds herself watching him put together his camera and set up his laptop at a table in the corner.

Maggie sees Kara’s eyes glued to the photojournalist and nudges Alex, “Has she never met James before?”

Alex follows Maggie’s gaze and sees her little sister and grins, “Um…no, actually,” Maggie knew a little bit about Kara—how her parents died and she moved in with them as a teenager, “Clark moved to Metropolis about a year before she got here, and Jimmy was his friend, not mine. They’ve never met.”

“You should change that…” she grins.

Alex arches an eyebrow, and watches a few seconds longer as her sister is frozen on the spot and mesmerized. She goes behind the counter and returns with two mugs of coffee, hip-checking her sister, “Hey.”

Kara blinks a few times and when she sees Alex staring at her, and then James, her cheeks turn pink, “Um…”

Alex smiles and hands over both coffees, “Go on, Kar.”

She looks nervous, “I—I don’t know. He’s Clark’s friend…and isn’t that weird?”

“No,” shakes her head, “Clark is our cousin, and this is his friend—I think you’re more than good there.”

“Really?”

Kara takes the mugs and Alex grins, dropping her voice low, “He’s been staring at you too, you know.”

She nearly spills coffee all over, “Nope—no—I did not, uh, did _not_ know that.”

Maggie appears over Alex’s shoulder and slips an arm around her waist, “All day yesterday, Kara. Seriously.”

She can feel her cheeks on fire, “Oh my god, ok—does _everyone_ know?”

Alex shrugs, “Yeah, kind of. But—” she looks around and Eliza and M’gann are handing out plates to some of the students grabbing breakfast, and Winn is following J’onn up the stairs, so no one else is paying attention, “who cares. And no one’s watching now.”

Lena appears out of nowhere, “Do you want a wingwoman?”

Kara takes a deep breath, “Maybe. You would do that?”

“Sure,” she shrugs, “I’ve known James for years. He’s a good one.”

Lena puts a hand on Kara’s back and leads her toward his table, and Alex watches his eyes light up when he sees her. She didn’t know it was possible to be more happy than she is right now, but somehow, she is.

Maggie turns to her suddenly, “Oh my god—James _Olsen_. Pulitzer Prize-winning _James Olsen_. Those pictures in Lena’s office—those are his.”

Alex looks confused, “Pulitzer Prize? Really?”

…

It’s well past dark, the whole length of the counter is littered with Chinese takeout boxes and half-empty bottles of water, and every chair and open space on the floor is just piles of exhausted limbs tangled on top of, around, and squished next to each other.

A high-pitched voice cuts through the room, “Miss Sawyer?” Alex looks up to see the girl with the calculator from that first night—Taylor, she now knows—with her hand lazily raised in the air, “Do we get extra credit for this?”

From her place in the armchair, leaning back into Alex, and more tired than she’s ever been, she grins, “I will definitely take it up with the principal.”

From somewhere behind her a deep voice bellows, “Approved.”

The whole room erupts into laughter.

The kids eventually file out—and Lena, Winn and Eliza offer to drive a few of them home.

Maggie and Alex watch from the kitchen window as Kara nervously says a long goodbye to James at the door, and when he chastely kisses her cheek before leaving, Alex is very impressed that she doesn’t outright squeal or jump into the air.

She waits until she’s back with them in the kitchen to do that. 

They listen to her talk nonstop about how cute he is and how kind he is and how amazing all his pictures are—but both are just waiting until she’s done and goes home so they can tell each other how cute and kind and amazing the other one is.

She finally exhausts herself and hugs them goodbye, before slipping out the back door.

Maggie’s leaning back against the counter, and Alex puts her arms on either side, and presses herself close, “I have never been this tired in my entire life.”

She grins, “Same. And you? You were amazing this weekend. The way your nerdy brain organizes and lists and functions while processing so many variables—if you ever wanted to, I think you could do much more with these kids than help them with calculus homework.”

Alex surprised herself with how much she enjoyed the challenge that was undertaking this huge project. She kind of loved it, “I might have to consider that—of course, I still have to figure out how to get the damn toaster oven to work…”

Maggie’s eyes light up, “Winn! He’s good with tech. I bet he could fix it for you.”

“You know…he would try his hardest, but I think he might burn down the building in the process,” she laughs, “I love this place too much to let that happen.”

Maggie kisses her soundly, and shakes her head a little, “I love _you_ , Alex Danvers.”

Alex beams. She’s never going to get tired of hearing that, “I love you too, Maggie Sawyer.”

There’s a squeal and a loud crash, and neither of them heard the back door open again, but they look over at the noise, and Kara’s practically vibrating and trying to pick up the shattered pieces of porcelain within the scattered remnants of bakery that are now all over the floor.

Maggie laughs, and Alex rolls her eyes, “Kara…” she groans.

Kara jumps up with the biggest grin, “I _knew_ something was different! I knew it!”

She hurdles the mess on the floor and wraps Alex and Maggie in a surprisingly strong hug, “You guys are the cutest!”

Neither of them disagree.


	17. Cape Tricks

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Something fun, because we all seem to be having a rough go of it lately. :)

“What are _you_ looking at?” she sneers.

She doesn’t get an answer.

Truthfully…she’d be afraid if she did.

Her phone pings and pulls her out of her imaginary conversation.

She checks the message:

_Kara: Sorry I left in such a rush! You know how Cat can be… Can you just bring my suit to the DEO tomorrow? I already told Winn about that tear. Doesn’t look like we’ll be out of here before midnight, so I’ll see you in the morning. Love you! xo_

“that tear”

That’s not what Alex would’ve called it.

“potential for getting my baby sister get killed”

…that was more suitable.

She snorts in the empty living room, “Suitable—get it? ‘Cuz you’re a _suit_.”

There’s no response from the supersuit draped over her couch—the one Kara took off in a rush when their Sister Night drinks suddenly turned into a CatCo emergency.

She shakes her head, still chuckling at her own cleverness, “You’re loosing it, Danvers…”

Whiskey after a too-long shift and an extra long training session was probably not her best idea.

But she needed to decompress, and Maggie was out of town for a conference in D.C.—and then Kara had to leave, of course—so she’s left to her own poor decisions in the empty apartment, talking to a piece of clothing while she waits for Maggie’s work drinks to end so she can tell her goodnight.

She stares again at the red and blue suit tossed over the arm of the chair and cocks her head, “How hard could it be, really?”

…

Harder than she thought, it turns out.

Harder still after a few drinks and sore muscles and not enough food and when she can barely keep her eyes open.

She’s mostly grateful no one else is around to witness her gracelessly shimmy and wriggle herself into the tight leotard.

She slowly turns in a circle in front of the mirror, craning her neck in an attempt to get a full 360° view.

It’s more comfortable than she would’ve imagined.

Kind of reminds her of her wetsuit.

It was a pain in the ass to put on, but now that she was in it, it was fine.

She swings her hips from side to side—small at first, then more exaggerated—testing the limits of the fabric.

The skirt is not her favorite, but she always thought it worked for Kara.

It kinda…made her feel invincible.

She spins as fast as she can—then promptly gets tangled in the cape, stumbles, trips on her discarded jeans, and falls to the ground with a loud _thud._

Maybe it was the whisky that made her feel invincible.

She catches a glimpse of herself in the mirror when she stands back up, and tries not to laugh.

She puffs her chest out and puts both hands on her hips.

“To infinity…and beyond!”

She punctuates the last word by punching her fist into the air, and cracks up at her own idiocy.

“Ridiculous…” she mutters to herself, “She pulls this off much better than I ever could—” then points an accusatory finger at her reflection in the mirror, “don’t you _ever_ tell her I said that!”

Her phone rings and she lunges across the bed with huge grin when she hears the familiar ringtone, “Hey, Mags,” she coos.

After a couple minutes, Maggie detects the sleepiness—and tipsiness—in Alex’s voice, and requests to be FaceTimed to make sure Alex takes care of herself.

Now standing in front of the fridge, Alex almost agrees—then remembers the outfit.

It’s a sobering thought, “I’m fine! Promise!” she answers much too quickly, “What? You don’t trust me?”

“Of course I trust you, babe. But I also know you. I said you need _real_ food. Ice cream is not real food.”

With the phone cradled between her shoulder and her ear, Alex stops suddenly with the pint of ice cream in one hand and the handle of the freezer in the other.

_How did she know??_

“There’s...pizza in the freezer…” she reasons.

“Yes, and the pizza is under the bag of frozen potstickers, and I didn’t hear any crinkling.”

Alex stares at the pint in her hand and opens the freezer again, “Fiiiiiine.”

She puts it back dutifully, and retrieves the pizza from under the potsticker bag—being sure to crinkle it extra loud for Maggie.

“Do I need to send Kara over there to supervise? Because I will…” she mock-threatens with a laugh.

“Pfft. Kara ditched me too. CatCo stuff.”

“Ahh. Well, I’m sorry. I wish I was there with you.”

“Me t—” but she’s suddenly yanked backwards and the phone falls to the ground.

She tries to catch the phone, but the cape is caught in the freezer. When she turns back to fix it, she ends up wrapped in it like a burrito, “Goddammit… _stupid_ …what in the hell?” she mutters.

“Alex?”

Maggie’s voice is barely audible from the kitchen floor. Alex yells back as she attempts to untangle herself, “Just a sec! Sorry! Dropped you.”

She finally frees herself from the cape and picks up the phone, “Sorry.”

“You ok?”

“Yeah, just…uh…” There’s no way she’s going to explain her current wardrobe, “The phone fell. And that’s all.”

“Ooookay…”

But over the course of their long phone call, the cape gets in the way a _lot._

When she checks on the pizza, it gets caught in the stove.

“Thank god you’re fireproof.”

“I’m what?”

“Foolproof! With the ice cream…and the pizza…” she recovers lamely, “Can’t fool you!”

There’s a long pause, “…you should drink some water, Al.”

When she kneels down to grab the fork that falls on the floor, she steps on the cape, but doesn’t realize it until she tries to stand back up—only to be suddenly jerked back to the ground.

“Stupid fucking cape,” she mutters.

“Did you say cape?”

“Cable! The…cable is out…I was gonna put some reruns on while the pizza cooks…”

“Oh…bummer.”

Then the fire alarm goes off.

“Alex! Do not burn the apartment down while I’m gone!”

“Ugh, I’m _not._  This stupid smoke detector is too close to the stove! I’m not even burning anything!”

Even as she says it, she still does a quick check around the kitchen, then inspects the cape to make sure it’s not secretly on fire.

“Where’s the step-stool, Maggie? This is going to wake up the whole building!”

“I don’t know! You used it last!”

“Did not!”

“Did too! When you were hanging that photo on the wall last week!”

Alex checks all the usual spots, but it’s not in any of them, “Maggie! It’s not here!”

“Just…wave a towel at it, or open the window or something.”

“Right. Ok. Hang on, I’ll be right back…”

She puts the phone on the counter and looks around for a towel, but all she has is a dish towel, and it doesn’t reach the ceiling.

…then she gets an idea.

Alex grabs the loathsome cape and waves it at the ceiling. Eventually the beeping stops. She picks up the phone and turns back to the oven to check on the pizza—which looks totally unburnt.

“I’m taking photographic evidence of this perfectly cooked pizza, because it’s not me I sw— _goddammit!”_

The resumed beeping doesn’t drown Maggie’s giggles through the phone, and Alex slides it back on the counter, grabs the cape, and angrily whips it at the fire alarm.

But the corner of the cape snags something—and before she knows it, the alarm rips from the ceiling and falls to the floor with a crash.

“Danvers! That better not be another fire alarm!”

She jumps and picks up the phone, “I didn’t mean to!’

“At least you found the step-stool…” she grumbles.

“Oh…uh…”

_Well actually, I accidentally flung the fire alarm to it’s death with Kara’s cape, because I’ve been wearing her Supergirl suit for the past two hours, after also having a staring contest with it, and maybe talking to it…_

“Is it broken for good?”

Alex peers down at the shattered plastic all over her floor, “Um…yes,” she confirms.

“Alex Danvers…what am I gonna do with you?” Maggie sighs.

3000 miles away, but she still feels the heat flush in her cheeks, “Marry me,” she says sweetly.

“Well…duh,” but she can hear Maggie’s voice soften, “We’re gonna have to work on your relationship with the fire alarm though.”

“Can’t we just move it?” Alex whines.

“Sure,” Maggie laughs, “Let’s put the fire alarm on the balcony where it won’t go off unexpectedly, and will also alert us to zero fires.”

Alex throws all the pieces of the alarm in the trash, grabs herself a few slices of pizza, and curls up onto the couch with Maggie still in her ear.

…

She’s not sure when she finally falls asleep, but she wakes up on the couch with the cape draped around her like a blanket.

While she peels off the suit on the way to the shower, moments from the night before come back to her—one in particular.

After her shower, and still in her towel, she grabs her phone:

 _Alex: Meet me at the DEO ASAP._  
_Alex: Non-emergency._  
_Kara: Everything ok?_  
_Alex: Yup._  
_Alex: Training session._  
_Kara: Now????_  
_Alex: Yes._

_…_

The sun’s not even up yet, but Kara wanders into the training room in her DEO sweats, still holding her donut and coffee—then nearly chokes when she sees her sister.

She’s laughing so hard, she can hardly breathe, let alone get any words out, “What...are you... _wearing_???”

Alex stares back proudly, “Your suit.”

“I see that…” She catches her breath, then furrows her brow in confusion, “Quick question: um...why?”

“Cape tricks.”

Kara bites back a second round of giggles, “Excuse me?”

“Cape tricks,” she repeats.

“Ok…that’s what I thought you sa— _heyyyy_!”

With a flick of her wrist Alex whips the cape across the room and slaps the donut out of Kara’s hand.

Kara crosses her arms, while Alex looks smugly at her.

Then she looks between the suit and the donut...and back to the suit.

She narrows her eyes at her sister, but Alex says nothing.

After a few minutes, her curiosity gets the better of her, “Ok…how’d you do that?”

A grin spreads across Alex’s face.

…

An hour or so later, J’onn walks into the training room for his morning meditation.

He swings the door open, and finds the room littered with concrete debris, broken cardboard cutouts, and shattered clay shooting pigeons.

He swears he sees Kara mid-air and suddenly yanked backwards—but he blinks, and she’s just standing casually in the middle of the room.

Alex is behind her, elbows propped on a half-busted cinder block, wearing a DEO zip-up.

“We—we’ll clean this up...” Kara gestures nervously to the scattered debris.

He looks between both sisters staring unblinkingly at him, “...okay...”

As he turns to leave, there’s a loud _smack_ , then a yelp, and he spins back around.

“Everything okay?”

Alex is rubbing the back of her neck that suddenly looks bright red, and Kara bites down hard on her lip, “She tripped.”

“Right. Tripped,” Alex agrees, with a glare at the back of her sister’s head.

He’s not even going to attempt to figure this out, “Briefing in twenty minutes.”

Both girls nod, and he opens the door again.

Then there’s another—much louder— _smack_ right in his ear, and he feels a small sting against his cheek.  

He doesn’t know what it was, but the poorly stifled giggles from behind his back confirm exactly where it came from.

He turns slowly on the spot, trying to maintain the stern face he failed to perfect most days as a parent—and now failed to perfect some days with his employees-turned-children.

Kara shrinks on the spot, and even Alex blushes and averts her eyes.

All he does is raise a questioning eyebrow, and she buckles, “I didn’t mean to! It slipped!”

He tries to hide the warmth he feels for watching his top agent plead with him like a kid caught in the cookie jar, “Take the cape off before the briefing, Agent Danvers.”

She barely hides her smirk, “Yes, sir.”


End file.
